Rising Titans
by Athk0r3
Summary: Jaune knew he was ready. He had trained all his life for this moment. His countless hours of blood, sweat and tears, brutal combat, close calls and clashes with death and duels with monsters were finally paying off. He would be going to school.
1. Prolouge: Visitors

With a disturbing swirling noise and a loud, deep humming, a green and black vortex appeared above the peak of a snow capped mountain. After a moment or two, a large, dark figure stepped through, a set of heavy boots crunching as the snow and ice cracked under the weight of armor.

"Is this world suitable, my lord?" Another figure asked as they walked through, this one cloaked in billowing robes, and standing considerably shorter than the first figure.

"Yes," The second, robed figure let out a sigh of relief they didn't know they were holding, "We shall begin immediately. Bring the workers through and instruct them to start building. I trust you still have the plans?"

"Of course, my Lord," The robed one gave a small bow, before turning to the portal, "Is there anything else you require, my Lord?"

"..." the larger figure was silent for a moment, "Yes."

"I await my command."

"Make contact with the locals," The large figure turned to walk through the portal, "It would be smart to gain some allies."

"Your wish is my command, I shall see to it immediately."

* * *

"Alright, listen up animals!" A man in a stark white coat and red bowler hat clapped his hands together, addressing a crowd before him, "We need to get this dust moving, ASAP! Got it?"

Roman Torchwick, the nefarious criminal, smirked as the White Fang grunts complied, and began to load the crates onto the bullheads.

"Ughh..." He leaned back in his chair, groaning, "I need a big break...soon."

How soon? Roman looked to the side, and saw his little friend, a small woman with a strange pink and brown hair color and a rather dainty parasol look up at him, her hands finishing up the sign language she just performed.

"How soon, Neo?" Roman twirled his cane in his hands, "A-"

"As soon as you decide whether or not to accept my offer." At the new voice, both Roman and Neo whipped around, weapons raised.

"Now now, no need for unwarranted hostilities," The figure was an inch or two taller than Roman, and cloaked in black, flowing robes and a hood that obstructed his face, "I have a preposition for you, Roman Torchwick."

"Start talking Black, and I might reconsider blowing you halfway across Vale." Roman said, a targeting reticle flipping up from the end of his cane.

"You are unhappy with your current employer," The figure continued, speaking in a fast, sharp, refined tone that wouldn't seem out of place in a politician, "You desire power, wealth, possibly more. My employer," he chose his word carefully, "would like to make an offer."

"Yeah listen buddy," a White Fang grunt spoke up in a gruff voice, "we aint working for anymore humans."

"The offer is open to you as well, and all your people," the cloaked man turned to the Fang grunts, "I can assure, no hostilities shall be borne against you, and a significant portion of our people are non-human. Rest assured, none of you will be forced into joining."

"Well, no can do pal," Roman waved his cane, "See, I'm under strict orders to-"  
"Perhaps a trial by combat?" His voice spoke again from the depths of the heavy, black cloth, "A demonstration of the power you could gain?" He smiled under the hood, seeing Roman consider it.

"Neo," Roman lowered the cane and nudged the small girl forward, said girl sporting a rather psychopathic grin, "Give this man a demonstration."

Neo lunged forward, revealing a long, thin blade, aiming to pierce the man's chest, only to have the man reach under his cloak and draw a sword, knocking her blade away. He leveled the tip of a black and silver rapier, with a two foot blade that drew to a needle tip and sported a razor edge. The handle had enough space to fit the man's hand perfectly, and sported an elaborate, flowing basket guard and a pair of thin, silver quillons.

He made the next move, attacking with two lightning quick horizontal slashed, which Neo blocked with her umbrella, and a quick thrust which the ice cream themed girl backed away from. The two engaged, trading slashes and thrusts in an impressive fencing display.

However, while the cloaked man had landed several strikes on Neo, she had yet to hit him, seeing as how she was being forced on the defensive. Sensing Neo's aura was now running low, thanks to a particularly well timed stab, Roman acted, taking aim with his cane and firing.

The man turned and slashed, the blade making contact with the explosive flare Roman had launched at him. However, despite protecting him from the main force of the blast, he was still stunned, the force throwing his hood off his face.

As his eyes narrowed on Roman, he looked down to see a thin, silver blade sticking out of his chest, courtesy of a certain Neopolitan, who winked at him.

"Impressive." The man spoke, legitimately sounding impressed. Suddenly, he drew a dagger with his off hand a swiped across Neo's face, breaking her aura. He reached out with his other hand, putting the tip of his rapier against the point of her throat.

Seeing the White Fang grunts raise their weapons, the man raised his palm, black, inky shadows circling in his grasp. His eyes, two bright red orbs looked into Romans green, and it was then that the room got a good look at him.

His face was very thin and gaunt, with pointy cheekbones and sunken eyes. His skin was incredibly pale, bleach white flesh stretched taut over bones and thin muscle. He sported a thin, pointed goatee of silvery grey hair, in direct contrast to the top of his head, which was entirely bald. The top his head sported a tattoo, of what looked like an ancient rune, a black, ominous symbol consisting of an upside down teardrop shape with a jagged sword pointing down to his face.

"I trust this is an apt demonstration?" The haggard man said, lowering his bony hand and removing the sword from Neo's neck.

"You think so?" Roman asked, "All I've seen is a fairly skilled swordsman, with a...oh."  
He paused as the pale man removed Neo's sword from his chest, his face showing no pain, or even discomfort. Roman and the White Fang watched as the hole in his chest closed up, sealing the wound with smooth white skin.

"W-what are you?" A dog faunus asked, his ears pricking up in anxiety.

"I," the man suddenly exploded, forming into a small swarm of...bats. About three dozen bats, flapping about and around the building, before swarming together behind Roman, and reforming in a short wave of inky shadow.

"Am a vampire." The pale being said, smiling, a pair of sharp, white fangs protruding from his jaws. He looked down at Roman from his new place behind him.

"Shall we discuss the terms?"

* * *

Raven Branwen sat in her chair, mask on the armrest and a map of the area on the table before her. She and her Lieutenants were planning their next raid, targeting a small town, recently abandoned town called 'Albion'. Apparently, a grimm attack had sent the town running, and they had left and entire village worth of supplies for the taking.

"We leave at dawn." Raven spoke, standing up and taking her mask with her, "Get some rest."

Raven walked across the camp, before entering her tent. She was about to lay down for the night when a chill shot down her spine. She looked around her in a circle. Nothing seemed wrong, everything was as she left it, bed, nightstand, armor rack, smoky cloud with red eyes, sword stand.

Wait.

Her eyes focused, hands reflexively drawing a long, red blade from a sheath on her hip and splitting the thing in two. As was the plan, but when the sword passed right through it, she simply backed into a combat stance.

The smoke-thing simply observed her with its red eyes, before floating out of the tent flap. It paused just outside the tent, and waved a column of smoke in a way that seemed to beckon her. Keeping her sword drawn, Raven followed it, as it led her out of the camp and into the woods.

She had been following it for no longer than 5 minutes, when it stopped. It turned to her, and shot up, and disappeared somewhere in the tree canopy. Raven was just about to turn around and leave, when she heard something land on a branch beside her.

"Craaww..." Her head snapped to the side, and saw a large, black bird a few feet away from her, "Craaww..."

It was a raven. A very large, menacing raven, measuring at least 4 feet from beak to tail. It looked at her with a dead face, patches of white bone peaking out from under its mangy feathers, empty voids in place of eye sockets. Its jagged beak cracked open once more, producing another deep, raspy, guttural caw.

Raven could now see that the bird's rib cage was exposed, bleach white bone contrasting against its pitch colored plumage. Its legs were nothing but bones as well, only sparsely connected with thin ligaments and tendons at the joints.

"Beautiful, is it not?"

CLANG

The voice had snapped Raven out of her stupor, and she swiftly brought her sword around, aiming to silence whoever had snuck up on her, only to have her red odachi blade get blocked by a steel sword.

Gritting her teeth, Raven swung twice, vertically and then horizontally, and had her blade blocked twice more, before she leapt back, blade still held at the ready.

"Show yourself!" She barked, as the figure stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight.

The figure was tall, easily standing at 6 foot 4, and was covered from the neck down in a combination of tough steel grey chainmail, furs and plate, the solid sheets of metal ending with fluted edges and trimmed with polished silver.

In their right hand was a large bastard sword, made of a grey metal, having a blade measuring about 3 and a half feet long, and 4 inches wide. The hollow ground cutting edge glinted dangerously in the moonlight, and there were a series of circles cut out of the middle of the blade, probably to reduce weight. Near the base of the blade were to spikes, which stuck out of the sword, and seemed sharpened like the blade.  
At the hilt was a wide metal crossguard, sporting quillons that had a coil twisted into it, and capped with a silver tip. The handle could just barely fit two hands, and was wrapped in a layer of black and silver leather, ending in a smooth, hexagonal pommel that was formed out of a shiny silver metal.

"My my, so fiesty..." The figure drawled, with a voice like honey, "As is expected of a human."

"I said, who are you?" Raven demanded, voice still strong and stoic.

"My name is Morrigan..." She walked into the moonlight, "And I have an offer for you, Raven Branwen."

"I-woah..." Raven faltered for a moment when she saw Morrigan. Her skin was pristine, smooth and fair, with just a hint of grey in it. Full, red lips and a slim face contained a pair of glowing, red eyes. Her hair, even from a distance, looked silky smooth and soft, forming a large flowing river of raven hair that trailed down to her mid-back. Around her neck was a thin, silver chain necklace that disappeared into the white, furred collar of her armor.

"Well aren't you something?" At this, the corners of her mouth turned up slightly into a cute smile, and her gaze focused on Raven, looking at her with slightly lidded eyes.  
With a loud, throaty caw, the large, decrepit, zombie raven flew from the branch and settle on Morrigan's shoulder. Morrigan looked over at the bird, and spoke.

"What is it Edgar?" Raven gave the woman a questioning look as she conversed with the necrotic bird. Shocking Raven of them, the bird opened its beak and made a series of caws, each varying in tone, pitch and length.

"Frankly I doubt thats a coincidence," As the bird cocked its head, Morrigan scratched under its chin, eliciting a throaty rumble, "you know how he is. I bet he planned it like this, that why he sent me instead of Zalthar."

"Hold on," Raven leveled a sword at the raven, now named as Edgar, "that thing talks? And you can understand it?"

"Of course I can," She gave him another scratch, this time on his back, between his wings, "Nevermore's are very smart, Edgar especially so."

"Nevermore?" As far as Raven knew, that thing on her shoulder was no nevermore, seeing as how it lacked the eyes, masks and spikes of grimm.

"Yes." Morrigan looked back to her as Edgar shook his head, "You know, large, undead, flesh-eating ravens?" Seeing no response from her, Morrigan made a conclusion, "I suppose you must have different names for them."

"Yea, sure..." Raven said, carefully eyeing the particularly mean looking talons that were firmly clamped onto Morrigan's shoulder, "but that's not why you're here, is it?"  
"How perceptive," Morrigan sheathed her bastard sword, sliding it into a scabbard on her hip, "but now, to business."

"You desire power, wealth, possible fame," The woman began, "my employer can give you that. All of it, and more."

"Who is your employer? Ozpin? Salem?" Raven asked, tightening her grip on her sword.

"Never heard of them," Morrigan gave a small shake of her head, "But, were you to accept, you would meet him, rest assured."

"You have my attention, Morrigan." Raven said, sheathing her sword and finally saying the other woman's name. It was foreign, definitely and a little unusual for her, but it seemed fitting, somehow.

"Excellent." Morrigan smiled, showing Raven a set of pearly white teeth, and sharp, curved...fangs.

At this, Raven drew her sword and jumped forward a few feet, leveling her red blade at the woman, almost pressing the point against her throat.

"I want answers, now," Ravens eyes were filled with a mixture of suspicion and determination, while Morrigan's were full of conviction and mirth, "what are you?"

"Oh my dear Raven," Morrigan gave a small chuckle, "You really didn't figure it out?"  
Her eyes flashed red for a split second, one hand swiftly moving the blade from her throat while striking Raven's wrist, forcing her to release the blade. With the bandit leader disarmed, Morrigan quickly stepped in, pinning Raven's hands behind her back, stopping her from striking further.

From behind her back, there was a swoosh noise, as a pair of wings unfolded. Huge, black, feathered bird wings. The wings of a raven.

"I am a Nevermore."

She released Raven and stepped back.

"Shall we discuss the terms?"

* * *

"I've gotta say, Zalthar," Roman looked over to the haggard vampire seated across from him, "this sounds like a really good deal..."

"That's because it is, Torchwick," Adam Taurus said, having been called in at the behest of the vampire, now named as Zalthar, "Once I relay this to Sienna, I've no doubt she'll accept."

"Of course, if it sweetens the deal, this Cinder Fall will be a threat to you and your people no longer. From what information you have bestowed upon me, I feel as if I… understand the unpleasantness of her character." Zalthar said, pausing to sip some of the alcoholic beverage the humans had offered him. Being a vampire and undead, he didn't need it. Frankly, he only took it as a sign of politeness, and to set the humans and faunus at ease.

"Well, I think me and Neo accept your offer," Roman said, turning to the ice cream girl, and seeing her nod in agreement, "But I was wondering if we could meet your boss."

"I believe that can be arranged." At this, Roman whipped around, unconsciously reaching for his cane. He and Neo turned to face the source of the voice. As they watched, a large, imposing figure stepped out of the shadows, and strode toward them with large, confident steps.

"Oh, wow…" Roman had to crane his neck to focus on their face, "you're...big..."

He couldn't have been more right. The man before them was inhumanly tall, easily reaching ten feet, and clad in a set of black and green plate armor. The full body armor set was very angular, with lots of geometric shapes and harsh, imposing angles. On the faces of the plates were glowing green colorations, which seemed to be formed out of some sort of emerald like crystal.

In the joints of the armor, the only visible weak point, was a set of bright silver chainmail, filling in the gaps between his black and green plate.

On the faces of the shoulder pauldrons, were a pair of runes, formed out of a series of concentric circles, with a malformed U and N in the center, both inlaid with the same green crystal.

At the waist was a black waistcloth, which stopped at his mid calf, and flared outwards slightly as he walked, held in place by a thick, studded leather belt with a buckle shaped like a horned dragon skull.

Even with it behind him, Roman and Neo could both see the long, black cape that came down from his shoulders, and stopped just at his ankles. With a few final clangs, the heavy plated boots came to a stop a few feet in front of Roman.

His skin was not just pale, it was grey, a light shade, but grey nonetheless. When they focused on his eyes, they were discolored, being solid black orbs with two, bright emerald irises, watching the humans and faunus with a detached gaze.  
His face was strong, and somewhat thin, benefitting his clearly slim build. His face bore a major scar, less of a cut and more of a huge tear wound running from just below his hairline on the right side of his face, and all the way down through his eyebrow and eye, cheek and eventually turning off and running down the side of his neck.  
He was clean shaven, with smooth, but strangely grey skin and a rather impressive mane of hair. Long, raven colored hair ran down to his shoulders, parted and framing his face, tucked behind a pair of pointed ears, that stuck out the side of his head.

He seemed young, somewhere in his mid or early twenties, but no older than 32. But the biggest thing that may have revealed his age was the crown. It was black, inlaid with a series of glowing, green pentagonal emeralds, and featuring a series of five long metal spikes that shot up from the front, giving a foreboding feel to the piece.

"And who are you?" Adam Taurus asked, hand inching toward his weapon. At his comment, the mans bright green eyes shifted, locking onto his mask, seemingly boring straight through it.

"I am Dread-Lord Acererak, Ruler of the Athkand, 9th Circle Necromancer, and The Lich King of Angmar, Land of the Dead." Acererak spoke, in a tone that demanded respect, even from Adam and Roman.

"And I assume you're Zalthar's boss?" Roman asked, his grip on the cane tightening even further.

"That I am." Acererak waved his hand, and a throne formed from the ground. Clearly of volcanic origin, the obsidian like substance was a smooth as glass and polished to a near-mirror shine. From within the stone came a faint reddish-orange glow, which beat like a living heart every few seconds.

"So what do you want from us, Acererak?" Adam asked, briefly looking to the white fang grunts around him, "I assume you won't just give us what we want for free."

"Correct Mister Taurus." Acererak steepled his fingers before he continued.

"I am willing to provide you and your people what is needed. Training, supplies, weapons, assistance, and even asylum. In exchange, I ask for your cooperation, and for you to assist me in establishing footholds in this world."

"W-why?" Adam asked, almost in disbelief.

"Hmmm?" Acererak raised an eyebrow.

"Why would you do this? According to Zalthar, you've only just arrived, and you're treated us better than any human has." Adam looked to his white fang soldiers, earning a few nods of confirmation, "And why to us? You could have gone to the humans, but you didn't."

"We are all equal."

"What do you mean?"

"I am a Necromancer." Acererak straightened his posture in his obsidian throne, "I have control over life and death. In my many years I have seen things that would break a lesser being. I have seen the depths of depravity and scum the world can produce."

"I raise the corpse of a king as I would any peasant or animal," Acererak paused for a moment, "We are all equal in death. Why should life be different?"

Once he stopped speaking, he saw the white fang look at him in wonder. A few jaws were even dropped. He turned to Adam once more and spoke again.

"I understand you will need to discuss this with your leader. If you would permit it, I would like to send Zalthar with you, in case there are any problems. If this deal is not to your or her liking, I am open to negotiations." Seeing Adam nod, Acererak turned to Zalthar, "I trust you are up to the task, Zalthar?"

"Of course, my Lord," The vampire bowed, and then pulled his hood back up over his head and turning to Adam, "I will gladly accompany you, were you to allow it."

"I'll allow it. We will leave immediately." He went to leave, and walked to the door, but paused and looked back for a moment, "Thank you Acererak." He said, before leaving.

"Is that really all?" Raven asked, almost in disbelief, "You want information and an alliance, and in return we get to ask for your help if we need it."

"Yes my dear, that is truly all." Morrigan said, uncrossing her legs, before standing and stretching out in the tent Raven was staying in.

"Do we have a deal?" She asked, with an outstretched hand.

Raven hesitated, before reaching out and shaking the gauntlet.

"Deal."

The mechanical behemoth's dust engines whirred, and the vehicle took off with a slight shudder, rising into the air, carrying a pilot, Adam Taurus, Zalthar and a few White Fang guards.

Neither party really trusted each other, not yet. Zalthar could see, even now, that Adam, while dedicated to his cause and a strong character, was a loose cannon. And the White Fang, Taurus included, simply didn't trust Zalthar because he was still a bit of an unknown. While the vampires boss's message had given them hope, this gaunt, pale skinned corpse was still creeping them out.

"What do you call this contraption?" Zalthar asked, rapping a kunckle on the side of the vehicle, deciding to break the pregnant silence.

"We call them Bullheads," The pilot shouted back to him, "Use 'em to fly."

"Impressive." Zalthar remarked, being actually very impressed, "How does it function?"

"We use yellow dust to power it," The pilot spoke again, "I'm guessing you guys don't use dust?"

"We do not. My people never had access to it." The vampire responded. Backing up the faunus's statements, Zalthar couldn't detect any magic, levitation, teleportation, even continuous fire streams, that might be keeping it afloat.

'I would quite like some samples of this 'dust'.' Zalthar thought to himself, 'This technology would be very useful to us. I have no doubt our scholars would have a lot of fun with it.'

"What is our destination, Adam Taurus?" He asked, looking over to the White Fang general.

"Menagerie."

'So far so good' Roman thought, looking across the table at Acererak, 'I've met a vampire and got a new job, so it looks like I've finished my bucket list…'

Roman truly did not know what to think about Acererak. One one hand, he had an air of respect, authority and professionalism that neither Cinder nor Adam could hold a candle to, and was still down to remnant, not all high and mighty like the aforementioned terrorists.

He seemed to always get to the point when talking, and despite being obviously very intelligent, didn't color his language or over complicate his sentences as much as his vampire friend did.

"As heartwarming as your message of equality is, I'm willing to bet you want something from me too, right?" Roman said, bringin the focus of Acererak back to him.

"Correct. I do want something from you." Acererak leaned in.

"How good are you at forging transcripts?"

Roman smiled.


	2. Chapter 1: A Whole New World

**Added line breaks and stuff**

* * *

Heavy boots charged forward, trampling grass and vegetation underfoot. With a well aimed thrust, and a flash of steel, a beowulf collapsed to the floor, a spike of metal lanced through its skull. Bracing the tough, armored boot against the grimm's skull, wrenching the blade free.

The sword was relatively basic, being a straight sword with a triangular point, convex edge, with a single fuller running down the entire length of the blade. It had a standard, if a little small golden hilt with a crossguard, the ends of which pointed upwards in two small triangles. The handle could easily fit two hands, and was wrapped with blue cloth, and capped with a golden, cylindrical pommel.

There was a growl, and with a quick movement and a flash of steel, a beowulf found its head rolling across the forest. With two more roars and two more strikes, another two wolves were decapitated. A charging ursa suddenly burst from the trees, and with an open hand, a roaring gout of red and orange flame collided with it, throwing the demonic bear off course.

Its roar turned into a shriek as demonic flames turned its fur to ash and scorched its flesh, and the disoriented beast accidentally rammed its head into a tree, shaking the trunk and splintering the bark.

With two steps and a jump, a pair of heavy boots found themselves on the bears shoulders, and a downwards thrust send a spike of steel through its skull. Seemingly unputerebed by the roaring flames that consumed the grimm, even as it dissolved into smoke, the boots landed on the grass, and continued north.

* * *

"What is a lone hunter doing this deep in the Emerald Forest?" Glynda asked, looking at the security footage once more. She turned to Ozpin, who was currently reviewing the exact same footage amid sips of coffee.

"Not a hunter," Ozpin took another looker at the video recording they had obtained from the cameras in the forest, "Certainly not old enough, probably a hunter in training."

"Even if they are, _what_ are they doing out there? No school's even start for a few more days."

"Lost, perhaps?" Ozpin mused, taking another swig of coffee.

"Well they certainly seem to know where they're going." Glynda pulled up a map on her scroll, which displayed a straight red line cutting through the forest, heading exactly north.

"Whoever this person is, it's important that we don't do anything rash," Ozpin set his scroll down and beckoned for Glynda to follow him, "That being said, It would probably benefit both parties if we could meet them."

He could practically feel Glynda sigh, "Do you want me to call up a bullhead?"

"Of course."

* * *

The beowulves were getting more numerous. One got impatient and took a step forwards, resulting in two quick slashes and boot to the chest. Seeing one attack, the entire pack decided to leap forward and charge, intent on tearing this person to shreds.

The first to reach their opponent was greeted with a right handed sword strike burying itself down through its shoulder and coming out the bottom of its waist. The second wolf died from a left handed punch delivered with a heater-style shield, held in a way that the 'top' of the shield was facing outwards toward his hand, letting them deliver very effective punches.

The shield was a solid black metal, decorated with a golden cross, and featured golden runes around the edges, which were capped with a bright silvery reinforcement.

With a series of slashes, punches, stabs and kicks, the lone warrior dispatched the horde with relative ease. Just as they freed their sword from the chest cavity of a grimm, the loud noise of a bullhead made itself known. Not seeing any real escape, the warrior simply stood, shield raised and sword drawn, readying for any hostile movement.

With a loud metallic noise, the doors of the bullhead opened, allowing Ozpin and Glynda to exit the ship. The two stood in front of the lone figure, observing their attire.

Dressed in somewhat archaic armor by their standards, the person still cut an imposing, knightly figure. Tough, dark leather boots, armored greaves and kneecaps. The upper legs sported what looked to be bright, silver chainmail over a tough cloth. The chest was covered in a chestplate, which was partially hidden by the long, cloth tabard, which began at the shoulders, went down the front of the chestplate, and was separated from the legs by a thick leather belt, which was decorated with numerous pouches.

After the belt, the tabard continued, ending about halfway down the shins, capped with a series of golden metal plates. The tabard was cut down significantly, being a 7 or so inch wide stip of fabric down the center of the chestplate, only widening near the top where it went over the shoulders, forming a long, rectangular line down the armor and between the legs.

The tabard was a rich, midnight black cloth, and the chest portion was emblazoned with a golden cross over the black background, the bottom of the cross continuing down the tabard and making a strip on the bit between their legs.

Much like the tabard, the actual armor plates were a very dark, yet metallic grey, tinged with gold at the edges. This held the same for the pauldrons, rerebrace, vambrace and gauntlets that armored their legs and arms.

"What do you want?" The knight asked, with a youthful voice that befitted their face.

"Just want to help. You seem a bit lost young man," At which the knight scoffed slightly, "Wandering around the Emerald Forest." Ozpin took a sip from his mug.

"I'm not lost," The knight responded, "I'm going north to Vale."

"May I ask why?"

"I'm going to be attending Beacon Academy in a few days, but I seem to have taken a wrong turn a few...days ago," The knight scratched his head with an armored hand, "and found myself here."

"You're attending Beacon?" Glynda asked, almost in disbelief, wondering how a future student had managed to make it almost the entire way to Beacon on foot, through the Emerald Forest.

"Yeah. I _was_ planning to go to Vale, but I got a little off course. Once I found myself in the Emerald Forest, I just decided to go through it."

"While that is very admirable and impressive," Ozpin spoke up, "would you care to join us on our bullhead?"

"Yeah sure," The knight said as the three boarded the vehicle, "how'd you find me?"

"We have cameras set up in the forest, just to keep an eye on things out here."

"Of course, cameras." The knight said out loud.

' _What in the Velsharoons name is a camera?'_ He thought to himself, ' _and how in the Nine Hells are we flying on this damn thing?_ '

But deciding to keep his thoughts to himself, the knight just sat down on one of the seats and just enjoyed the ride. It wasn't nearly as intense or fast as a dragon or wyvern, but it was very comfortable and relaxing.

"So young man," Ozpin took a sip from his mug and turned to the knight, "what is your name?"

"Jaune," the knight responded, "Jaune Arc."

* * *

"My Lord," Morrigan gave a deep bow before addressing Acererak, "with all due respect, was it really necessary to drop Jaune off a few dozen miles outside the city?"

"Lady Morrigan, how many times have I told you to stop the 'my lord'?" Acererak sighed, a reflex that managed to stick around from when he was still alive, "We are friends, are we not?"

"And how many time have I requested you call me 'Morrigan'. Lady Morrigan, seriously?" The nevermore challenged, crossing her arms and earning a chuckle from Acererak.

"You saved my life, and for that I owe you, Lord Acererak." She said in a suddenly serious tone, temporarily obstructing her playful attitude.

"Any debt you are imagining, you have surely repaid in full." He said, as the Nevermores wings shifted slightly.

"Fine." Morrigan decided to drop the topic, "But back to the subject, did you really need to set Jaune down _that_ far outside Vale?"

"No." Acererak looked out the window of the warehouse they were in, down at the streets of the human city of Vale, "But the boy needed a challenge."

Morrigan was just about to interrupt, when there was a knock on the door, which the Nevermore answered, one hand drifting to the hilt of her bastard sword. When the wooden door creaked open, Morrigan looked ahead and saw nothing. Then she looked down slightly, and saw Neo, who was looking up at the rather tall woman with a sense of jealousy.

"Greetings Neopolitan." Acererak said as he strode over to the girl, "I trust you are here on behalf of Roman?"

Seeing the girl nod, she handed the ten foot giant a slip of paper, which he had to crouch down to pick up and she had to tiptoe to give, a sight which earned a small giggle from Morrigan.

"He wants lien as payment?" Acererak asked Neo. Seeing the girl nod again, Morrigan interrupted.

"He does understand that we could pay him his weight in gold, right?" The nevermore asked the little girl, whos eyes widened.

"Would that be preferable?" Acererak asked. After a series of vehement nods, the little girl left to go tell Roman the news.

"Looks like you _can_ make friends!" Morrigan reached up and poked Acereraks shoulder, "I thought Zalthar was kidding when he said you got a deal with a human crime boss."

"We both know Zalthar is incapable of humor." He said, before muttering under his breath. " _That vampire needs to relax once in while…_ "

"Yeah he does, but you do too." The nevermore said as she resumed trying to figure out how to work a scroll.

"I need no such thing."

"Yes you do," Morrigan reaffirmed, "I've never seen you stop working, save for when Jaune is around, and even now you've been wearing your heavy combat armor for three weeks straight!"

"It is _far_ more comfortable than it looks!" Acererak shot back in an uncharacteristic shown of backtalk. While Acererak was a very reasonable being, he was also rather stubborn. As such, when he first made his heavy combat set, he'd worn the dread steel and dendritic emerald plate armor for a solid month, just to prove that it was worth it.

And even though it was very impractical to wear as normal daily attire, its combat efficiency and the amount of defense it offered could not be matched by most mortals.

"Alright, alright, don't get your wraiths in a knot…" Morrigan put her hands in the air after setting the scroll down, "Anyway, I have another meeting with Raven Branwen, so I should get going."

"Good. I expect Zalthar to finish negotiations with the White Fang soon."

* * *

"Why wont you die you damn human!" A young white fang member shouted as he swiped angrily at Zalthar, who kept taking hits, allowing the child to hack him up into pieces.

"Remind me again why we aren't stopping this kid from killing him?" Adam asked, looking over to the female tiger faunus on a throne next to him.

"If this vampire is able to live up to your claims Taurus," Sienna answered, "then I will have a reason to believe him."

"Raaah!" The boy yelled, letting his anger for humans and frustration at not killing Zalthar reach a boiling point, and he lunged at the vampire, cat claws growing from his fingertips as he leapt forward.

Zalthar however, simple exploded into a cloud of bats, leaving the child to hit the ground as the vampire swarmed all around the room for a minute or two, before coalescing into back into Zalthars form, black robes and all.

"I can understand your anger, child," The vampire spoke as the kid stood back up shakily, "Your hatred toward humans is understandable, but you must realize that I am no human."

"You show great promise, and indeed," Zalthar gave a short nod, "your blows would have felled any normal human, but nothing short of a stake through the heart or enchanted silver will be able to harm me."

"That is enough Cye," Sienna spoke up, seeing the new white fang member getting ready to pounce again, "Leave us."

Once the White Fang had left, Sienna and Adam focused their attention on the vampire, with the former taking in his truly haggard, almost decrepit look with what might have been slight concern.

"I'm sorry about that," Sienna explained, "Cye Arren has a very unfavorable view of humans, as do much of the White Fang. Despite Adams insistence, I belIeved you to be human when you first showed up. However, your little display was enough to convince me otherwise."

"Well you are correct on some level," Zalthar began to explain, "I _was_ human, but a few centuries back I was attacked by a vampire."

"Centuries?" Adam asked.

"Nine and a half centuries." Zalthar clarified. "I spent the first fifty years wandering and hiding under the cover of night. Around the time of 950 years ago, I was found cowering in a hole in the ground during the invasion of Amar Basin by Lord Acererak, and have served at his side ever since."

"Adam had informed me of you and your 'Lords' otherworldly origins, as well as your offer," the white fang leader said, "and while it is quite promising, we have some questions I hope you can answer."

"Our end of the bargain is that we help you establish ourselves here, and provide assistance if needed. Why?"

"We are unfamiliar with this world," Zalthar said, settling back into his natural element; negotiations and discussions, "We would greatly dislike the appearance of any surprises from those who would disagree with us, and therefore assistance in our establishment here would be greatly accelerated."

"What would you be looking for, concerning assistance from us?"

"Primarily advice, such as where to begin construction as well as what dangers we might face, in addition to basic guards."

"Who will you have build your…" Sienna paused for a moment, "base?"

"We will provide construction materials and constructors. We have no intention of roping your people into a project they wish not to." The vampire clarified, "Well, except for one thing…"

"And that would be?" Adam asked, filling in for Sienna briefly.

"Your technology is fascinating, simply put." Zalthar unconsciously scratched his silvery-grey goatee in a thoughtful manner.

"We have nothing like it, and as you can see from my attire," Zalthar gestured to the heavy black robes that hung on his emaciated frame, "and possibly my mannerisms that you are technologically more advanced than us. We would like assistance in understanding it."

Both Sienna and Adam exchanged glances, the former somehow emoting through his White Fang mask. After reaching a silent agreement, Sienna spoke again, making her first request to the vampire.

"We have decided to accept your offer...if," The silence hung the air for a moment, "if you get Cinder Fall and her sidekicks out of our hair."

"Done." Zalthar said. "If you would be kind enough to give us any information you have on them, we would be more than happy to oblige."

"Then I believe we have a deal." Adam said, stepping forward and extending a hand to Zalthar

"I believe we do." Zalthar replied as he returned the handshake.

"You will know where to find us." The vampire said, before exploding into a swarm of bats. The couple dozen winged mammals darted around the room, before flooding out an open window, into the night.

* * *

"This is Beacon academy?" Jaune asked, sword sheathed at his side and shield on his back.

"It is. Even with your relatively slow method of transportation, you still have about six days before classes start." Ozpin answered, then took a sip from his mug.

"I don't mean to be annoying or anything," Jaune said, dreading the next part of his statement, "but do you know anywhere I can stay?"

"Of course." Jaune sighed in relief at that. "Room and board is accounted for, and your tuition has already been paid in full for this year. Now if you don't mind, Professor Goodwitch will show you to your room and scroll."

"Thank you Sir Ozpin," Jaune said, giving a short, almost unnoticeable bow, "A pleasure to meet you."

"I...it was a pleasure to meet you too, Mister Arc." Ozpin said after a slight pause, being temporarily thrown for a loop thanks to the knights politeness.

"Follow me," Glynda made a sharp turn and began to lead Jaune through the academy.

' _It seems the feast hall in this academy is rather grand,'_ Jaune thought as he passed the lunchroom, ' _For such a large hall they must have suitably legendary battles to fit the occasion of such a feast. I bet they serve a good slow roasted manticore loin…;_

But despite the rather relaxed atmosphere provided by the place, Jaune could not figure out why for the life of him why the woman leading him about was dressed so provocatively. And this seemed to be her normal day wear, not even night clothing. It was less something he expected to see on a professor and more something he'd see on Lady Morrigan, whenever she was trying to draw out a reaction from Acererak.

But he refrained from commenting, as that might have been seen as rude, so Jaune simply tried not to focus on her impressive assets, a difficult task in it of itself.

After some time, they reached the dorm rooms, one of which Goodwitch unlocked, then handed a copy of the key to Jaune, along with a strange rectangular slab of metal with a glass front.

"Here is your copy of the key, as well as your scroll. Try not to loose either of them."

"Thank you." Jaune said.

' _What in the name of Velsharoon is up with these people? This isn't a scroll, this looks more like a piece of Elven jewelry.'_ Jaune thought.

"Take the next few days to familiarize yourself with the academy, and feel free to use the bullheads to visit Vale." Glynda said as she turned to leave.

"I will," Jaune gave another small bow, "thank you, Lady Goodwitch"

Once she left, the knight entered the dorm room and closed the door. It was a modest affair, with four single person beds, a kitchen of sorts, and a large flat pane of black glass and metal.

Jaune had began removing his armor and laying it out for inspection when a clicking noise caught his attention. Walking to the large glass pane, he opened it, allowing the ragged corpse of an oversized raven to come in.

The emaciated body perched itself on a nightstand and gave a low caw as Jaune ruffled its feathers.

"Hello Edgar, how is everything going?" Jaune said as he scratched its skull at the base.

"Crawww…" Edgar intoned, "craw, craw…"

"Yes, I've arrived in one piece, you can tell Morrigan to stop worrying now…" It had taken Jaune the better part of a decade to learn to speak and understand Corvian, the language of the Corvidae family of birds, which included Crows, Ravens, Corvians and Nevermore's.

"Craaaaw craw crrawww…" The nevermore croaked, as it untied a small scrap of paper from a pouch on its leg and handed it to Jaune, who accepted.

"Thanks, I was wondering how these 'scrolls' worked…" The knight said as he began observing the instruction manual, his Ring of Translation making the foreign text readable.

"Caww?" Edgar asked, and tilted his head toward Jaune.

"Yes, actually," Jaune passed the room keys to the nevermore, "can you see if we can replicate these?"

The undead raven shook his head up and down, before grabbing onto the key with its jagged, craggy beak. The nevermore unfurled its mangy wings, and flew out the window, quickly disappearing into the environment.

Watching Edgar fly off, Jaune gave off a relieved sigh. He'd made it to Beacon, despite Acererak dropping him off in the wilderness. He turned back to his bed, and continued to remove his armor, laying out the dark grey and old edged plate mail. He carefully undid and placed his black and gold tabard on the bed, and used a Greater Restoration spell to polish up the armor and repair the few rips and tears in the cloth.

His chainmail was next, a standard yet effective set of silvery steel, enchanted like the rest of his armor. Once the chain was off, he began to load everything into his bag of holding, packing the armor into a pouch barely the size of his fist, which he hung on his belt.

Having put his armor away, Jaune turned to the large mirror opposite the bed. He looked into the reflective surface, making sure he didn't have anything on his face. He reached behind his head and undid the cloth knot holding his shaggy, shoulder length hair back in a ponytail, allowing the long, messy, ochre yellow locks to fall down, small tongues of fire and smoke drifting from his hair.

Looks like his pyromancy was acting up again. When he got tired, his control of fire started to run a little rampant, sending sparks around his body. He huffed, blowing a small plume of smoke out of his nose.

Disrobing completely, Jaune stepped into the rooms bathroom.

"What in the Nine Hells is that?" He muttered to himself, looking at a strange series of objects implanted in the tiled wall. One was a lever, which the knight tentatively grabbed, and turned, giving himself quite a scare when steaming water began blasting out of a series of holes in the wall.

He reached a hand in, and felt a shiver run down his spine. Within moments, he was in.

Jaune sighed to himself, as scalding water that would give most mortals serious burns ran off his back. He felt the intense heat seep into his body, and the fire inside him rise to a toasty simmer, smoke drifting from his mouth and nose as he breathed, sparks and tongues of flame leaping from his hair, and his bright golden eyes gave off a warm, content glow.

Nearly an hour later, Jaune exited the bathroom with a towel, steam rising from his bare, tanned skin. After drying himself off, he decided he should become familiar with his new surroundings. Putting his full armor back on, the knight left the room, the building, and boarded a large bullhead, not dissimilar to the one he'd taken to beacon.

* * *

The streets of Vale were nice. The air was cool, with a light breeze, and the night was quiet and calm. Sure, Jaune had gotten a look or two for his full armor and sword, but most just filed it under 'Huntsmen being huntsmen'.

"Vale Valuables Exchange…" Jaune mumbled looking at a bright neon sign, "perfect."

Jaune strode right in and walked up to the desk that said, 'Gold to Lien'.

"Welcome young man!" The person working the desk said, opening his arms wide in a welcoming gesture, "I assume you're here with a bit of gold?"

"That I am sir," Jaune reached into his bag of holding, and withdrew a large wooden crate, measuring about a foot on each side. Jaune grabbed the top of the crate, armored fingers digging into the wood, and ripped it off, revealing neatly stacked rows of gold bars, each measuring about a pound in weight.

"Holy Oum…" The man's jaw literally fell open, "how, how m-"

"How much?" Jaune asked. Seeing the man nod, he continued.

"That crate has 1200 pounds of gold, each bar is 1 pound." The man started sweating profusely.

"How much is that?"

"Eleven…"

"Eleven?"

"Million…"

"Can you trade that much?"

"N-no…" The man started stuttering.

"Then I'll only trade for half of it. Five million is a good number to start with."

"Sure thing s-sir, I'll ring it up right now." The man said as he ran into the back in a hurry.

Suddenly he felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned around, coming nearly face to face with a young, pale skinned woman with green eyes and bright red hair in a ponytail.

"Can I help you?" Jaune asked.

"No, I'm just looking to buy a little gold." She explained politely, "My weapon's seen a lot of use, and I wanted to touch up a few pieces."

"Huh, well I'm selling some gold," Jaune motioned to the large crate stacked with glittering bars, "interested?"

"Wow…" the redhead whispered, eyes widening, "I-don't need _that_ much."

"Me neither." Jaune shrugged, "Anyway, whats your name?"

Her eyes widened in confusion slightly, before she smiled and reached out a hand, which he shook.

"Pyrrha Nikos, from Mistral."

"Jaune Arc, from Angmar."

"Angmar?" Pyrrha cocked an eyebrow up quizzically.

"Outside the kingdoms," Jaune said, technically not lying as he began to remove gold from the box, "Very far away."

"You're from outside the Four Kingdoms?" Pyrrha asked, "Is that why you have so much gold?"

"Yeah. We use gold as currency out there, so I was just exchanging some for lien." Jaune said as he began removing bars from the box.

"How much is in there?" Pyrrha asked.

"About 1200 pounds, give or take," Jaune said as he finished unloading half the box.

"Thats a lot of gold…"

"Eh. Anyway the guys should be back any secon-"

"Hello sir, I've got your lien from the exchange right here. Will that be all?" The man said, suddenly appearing and handing Jaune a large, black briefcase stuffed with lien.

"Yes, this is it. Pleasure doing business with you." Jaune said with a slight bow. He turned to Pyrrha and gave her a small bow as well, "It was wonderful to meet you Miss Nikos, I hope to see you around." And left the building, leaving a very curious Mistralian Tournament Champion alone in the shop.

"Now I need to find a library…" Jaune said to himself as he walked down the street, stuffing the box of gold and case of money into his bag of holding.

"From Dust Till Dawn…" Jaune read the name of another shop just down the street, "and bookstore."

* * *

"Are you sure no one is suspicious?" Morrigan said, and watched Raven huff in annoyance.

"I told you, no one is suspicious of us, we haven't attacked anything in a week, no one's heard anything from our tribe," she retorted, "all we've been doing is finding you guys a place to set up."

As the two women continued their meeting, neither of them noticed a lone crow, sitting above them in a tree branch

A crow that had just heard a _lot_ of things. Just as this crow was about to leave, a loud, throaty craww announced the presence of another bird.

Edgar, Morrigan's nevermore, swooped down

Bone talons outstretched and a jagged bleach white beak ready to tear the smaller bird apart

The crow squawked in surprise and tried to get out of the way, but it was too late. Edgar slammed its claws into it and threw it to the ground, right in front of Raven and Morrigan.

The two watched as the crow began to change, shapeshifting into a middle aged human man with spiky black hair, red eyes and a substantial five o'clock shadow.

"Qrow…" Raven almost growled, as Morrigan drew her bastard sword and leveled the tip at the mans throat.

"Speak human, or I'll make you." Morrigan threatened, voice as cold as frosted steel. Edgar, who had since landed on her shoulder, gave another loud craww, as if to agree with her.

"Not happening sweetheart." Qrow said as he swung his broadsword at her.

Morrogan deflected the attack easily, and countered with a quick horizontal swipe, which Qrow backstepped. Keeping him on the defense, Morrigan dashed forward, clashing swords once more. Again and again, she pushed him back, and eventually Qrow decided to try and leap behind her, over her head.

The second he left the ground, Morrigan gave a beat of her own wings, launching herself into the air. She came down with a vertical slam, catching Qrow in his jump and slamming him into the ground.

As she landed in front of him, a shotgun blast just clipped her face, sending a few pellets through her cheek and on into her jaw.

With Morrigan temporarily disabled, Qrow turned back into a crow and flew off, heading toward a bullhead far off on the distance.

Raven was just about to give chase when she heard Morrigan shout, "Greater Polymorph!"

Suddenly Edgar grew a lot bigger. Bones cracked and reformed, feathers grew exponentially in size, and the exposed bleached white bone grew more massive until the once 4 foot long raven was a 30 foot long behemoth, the gargantuan wings of which literally blotted out the sun when he unfurled them. He rose into the air, higher and higher before speeding off towards the distant flying machine.

"Morrigan!" Raven shouted as she reached the somehow still standing woman.

Morrigan turned to face her, a cold, smoldering glare in her glowing red eyes. Her left cheek was perforated with about five small holes, with a sixth on her jawbone. Teeth now visible through the holes in her cheek, the tightly clenched white fangs giving way to a low growl of anger.

"Bastard," Morrigan stood up, and watched in the distance as the now supersized Edgar began to engage the bullhead in combat, "Acererak won't be happy…"

* * *

"Put the dust in the bag!"

"Please, just take it!" The shopkeeper begged, as he began handing the criminals the dust, "Just don't hurt me!"

There was a sound like metal on wood as a sword was drawn from a scabbard, and the criminals turned around to see a knight in black and gold with weapons drawn, a pair of glowing gold eyes staring them down.

"Shall we?"

 **AN**

 **Oh boy. I just _love_ having a job over the summer. It allows me to work on my writing and have free time. Also Monster Hunter World PC. Good game. Anyways, sorry about dissapearing again. I'll try not to, but I can't make any promises.**

 **-Athk0r3**

 **ps Add me on steam, name's Loaf of Sadness**


	3. Chapter 2: Beacon

**Big boy chapter my dudes prepare your reading organs.**

While they are somewhat similar, there are a few notable differences between Paladins and Crusaders. Paladins are, typically, lone religious knights who are blessed or otherwise empowered by a 'good' god or goddess. They use holy magic, calling power directly from their divine patron.

Crusaders are more simple in a way. Crusaders are religious knights known for their fervor and extremely zealous belief. They can function as priests and religious figures, and some positions of crusader require vows. With an affinity for healing and buffing magic, crusaders fight as one large force, like an army, as opposed to a typical Paladins 'lone wolf' style. While crusaders worship the same gods as most paladins, they draw their magic from angels, aasimar and the like. Their positive relation with the angelic community is what les to their use of Angelic magic, as opposed to a Paladins Holy magic.

Now, both of the aforementioned types of religious knights follow the 'good' entities. The gods of light and love and culture.

But Hell has its own knights too. Directly contrasting Paladins, Infernal Knights use Hell magic, drawing power directly from the Nine Hells, not reliant on any divinity or force of power.

And directly contrasting Crusaders are the aptly named, 'Darkrusaders', knights who use demonic magic, calling upon demonic lords and figures for power and strength.

Jaune Arc was a deacon in the 142 Legion of Darkrusaders, trained from early childhood as an infantry man, specializing in melee combat and pyromancy. While only a deacon, the second rank in the Darkrusaders, he was very skilled and powerful for his age.

Which is why he was almost insulted by these petty street criminals. Pommel met face as a distinguished deacon of the 142 Darkrusader Legion bashed in the skull of a basic robber.

Turning to the last one, Janue looked to his side, seeing a young girl in a red cape weilding a massive scythe cocked a strange handle on the shaft of the weapon.

"Worth every cent, truly," a human dressed in a stark white suit muttered from behind a mass of orange hair and black bowler hat, "Well Red and Black, I think this is where we part ways!"

The human flicked his cane upwards, and a strange attachment appeared, looking almost like the sights of a crossbow.

' _Oh.'_ Jaunes eyes widened.

The end of the cane exploded, and a small fireball raced toward the young woman next to him. Throwing himself forward, his shield intercepted the projectile, where it promptly detonated, and sent him flying. He landed flat on his back, the tough stone-like road tearing at the back of his tabard and scratching his armor.

Suddenly, the girl was next to him, helping him up, somehow getting all the way across the street in an instant, far too fast for a non-magic user should be able to. He gratefully reached up to take her hand.

"Dust you're heavy…" she groaned as she helped him up. Jaune quickly thanked her, and sheathed his sword.

"Are you alright miss?" He asked, quickly looking her over.

"I'm fine, thanks." She said, before turning to a rooftop, and pointing at the rapidly fleeing form of Roman Torchwick, "Wait! He's getting away!"

"Don't worry, I can handle it," Jaune grabbed her shoulder and gently turned her toward the shop, the front of which was a mess of bodies and broken glass, "I need you to make sure none of these guys get away, alright?"

Receiving a nod from her, Jaune sprinted toward the roof Roman had retreated to, and scrambled up the metal ladder that hung off the side, the ill-forged iron groaning under the weight of him and his armor.

"Persistent…" Jaune heard the criminal say, before turning to the knight. As soon as he saw him, his eyes widened.

"Jaune?" Roman asked.

"Roman." Jaune replied, keeping his sword sheathed, "What are you doing here?"

"You know how your boss-" Roman began, only to be interrupted by Jaune.

"King."

"Yeah, King…" Roman restarted, "You know how Acererak and I came to an agreement, where he would take care of Cinder and I would stop the whole mob guy thing?"

"I am aware," Jaune looked over the edge of the roof, at the red cloaked girl, who was currently restraining the unconscious robbers with a length of rope, "and I think I know where you're going with this."

"Smart," Roman clicked his tongue and continued, "Well as you've probably guessed, you guys haven't taken care of her yet, and I can't exactly go against her until you do so."

"Makes sense." Jaune sighed, broken out of his interruption by two things, the noise of a bullhead, and the noise of the young girl somehow leaping onto the roof.

"That was quick…" Roman and Jaune muttered at the same time. Jaune drew his sword and shield, and Roman turned to jump off the roof, only to rise up seconds later in a bullhead, looking at the pair from the open door of the ship.

"End of the line you two!" He shouted, throwing a red crystal at them. Thinking fast, Jaune moved to intercept with his shield, but a purplish runic symbol had already formed above them, shielding the pair from the explosion.

Turning around, Jaune and the girl saw Miss Goodwitch, using her riding crop as a wand, weaving runic symbols in the air, sending a wave of force toward the bullhead. Just before it reached the flying vessel, a wave of fire snaked out to meet it, canceling both out.

Next to Torchwick was a woman, dressed in red, flinging fire like a pyromancer with a power complex, launching waves, blasts and jets with almost reckless abandon, the unfocused manner in which it was conducted making Jaune question whether or not she was really in control.

Despite the superior raw power of her opponent, Goodwitchs skill and experience won out in the end, redirecting a jet of fire directly toward the bullhead, washing over it and nearly knocking it out of the sky, before it righted itself and flew off.

While the girl in red began asking Goodwitch questions, Jaune made a mental note to try and find Torchwick at some point, before the Beacon professor snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Jaune." She didn't seem too angry.

"Lady Goodwitch," Jaune gave a small bow, "Great to see you again."

"Thank you Jaune…" She responded, the slightest hint of a smile creeping at the corners of her mouth and a very faint reddish tint forming on her cheeks. "But neither of you are supposed to be here." She said, the smile gone.

Jaune gulped.

* * *

"Stay here!" Morrigan shouted to Raven as her massive black wings lifted her into the air, crimson eyes smoldering in cold rage as she moved toward her target.

Swearing like a sailor, the nevermore flew toward her target at alarming speeds, swiftly reaching the bullhead, its retreat having been halted by the 30 foot undead raven currently tearing it to pieces. Edgar swooped down, his monstrous bone talons tearing a series of huge gashes down the topside, forcing the ship to reel back from the force, presenting Morrigan with a perfect view of the cockpit.

Swinging around, she brought her armored feet forward, and smashed right through the aircraft grade glass, unintentionally demolishing the co-pilots seat. Thankfully, there wasn't anyone in the co-pilots seat, but its not like the pilot could do anything about it.

Not hesitating for a moment, Morrigan drew her bastard sword in the same movement, and brought it down toward Qrow. Releasing a rather unmanly shout of surprise, the human warrior jumped back, drew his sword and swung it toward the undead woman, just avoiding her sword and bringing his across her side, scraping against the plate armor she wore.

She reached out with one hand, grabbing a fistful of Qrows unwashed shirt, and threw him into the side of the airship and following quickly with a thrust. Her opponent swiftly jumped, sending the blade straight through the bullheads wall. Qrow landed on top of her sword, and aimed his, now in shotgun configuration, at Morrigan, and fired. Just like before, Morrigan took the shot, this time the blast this time clipping her neck, the pellets tearing through her pale flesh, sending dark blood flying.

The force of the attack sent her flying into the opposite wall with a metallic thump and a nauseating crunch, her body making a dent in the wall and her left wing breaking with the impact. From her place in the wall, Morrigan reared a hand back, casting **Vitriolic Sphere,** and threw it, catching Qrow dead center with the ball of acid.

Feeling his aura dissolve and the slight burning increase, Qrow decided it was time to abandon ship, and leapt out the back, transforming himself into a crow in an attempt to rid himself of the smoking acid, an attempt that seemed to work, and only a few traces drops of the substance remained, quickly steaming off his feathers as they tried to eat away at him.

Ozpin would need to know about this.

* * *

"Torchwick?" Cinder called out to the mob boss, her falsely kind voice carrying a biting undertone of seething anger, "Your scroll judge received a very interesting call from Adam Taurus."

"It did?" He asked, internally panicking, ' _So that's where I left it…'_

"It did." She affirmed, her tone moving from mock politeness to confident accusations, "He said something about, and I quote, 'Getting rid of the bitch and her pets'. Any idea what that could mean?"

Knowing exactly what that meant, Roman stalled, and could see Neo creeping up behind Cinder and her two cronies, parasol blade drawn.

"Nope." He said, popping the _p_. And he would have continued to stall, had a literal rotting corpse not charged out of the darkness of the warehouse and flung itself at Cinder, who promptly incinerated it.

Silence permeated the empty building for a second, before Cinder was launched offscreen by a jet of sickly green energy, crashing through the flimsy wall of the storage building.

Acererak stepped through the hole, his monstrously large frame having to crouch down to fit through. He tilted his head, and a series of cracks and pops came from his neck as he viewed the woman with disdain.

"Who dares to-"

"I dare." Acererak affirmed, his necrotic green eyes glowing with cold indifference. With a flash of sickly green light, a monstrous greatsword appeared in his right hand. A gigantic sword with a huge, thick, six foot long blade of some black steel like substance that radiated death and promised no mercy to those that meet it in battle.

It seemed absurdly heavy, with a rectangular blade ending with a wicked spear point near the tip. The black blade had a large cutting edge which ended with the single, wide fuller, which formed a deep line as it snaked its way up the blade, ending about a quarter of the length from the point. The fuller was engraved with foreign runes which glowed with a strange green light.

Right where the blade met the hilt, there was a silvery metal dragon skull with glowing green eyes, which faced toward the point, and was made so to seem to be swallowing the blade. At the base of the skull, the metal head melted into the crossguard, which featured two, straight, triangular quillons which were twisted into coils and topped with two metal spikes. From the skull, two silvery metal horns protruded and loosely coiled around the quillons, before splitting halfway across them and turning into two downward and two upwards spikes.

The handle was long enough for him to fit his two hands comfortably, and was wrapped in smooth, jet black leather. The pommel was shaped like a human skull, and was eerily accurate. The bony visage had its mouth hanging open in what was either laughter or a death scream. The entire piece was carved out of a single chunk of the glowing green crystal on his armor, and glowed dimly in the night.

Just as the ten foot lich took a step toward Cinder, both Emerald and Mercury leapt at him, firing revolvers and launching a kick respectively. As expected, the barrage of gunshots simply pinged off the necromancers heavy armor, and Mercurys flying kick was met with a solid left handed punch that impacted his stomach, forcing his lunch back up to the world.

The force not only stopping his decent, but reverting it, the power of Acereraks strike kept him in the air, where a rising slash from his monstrous greatsword, catching him in the chest and sending him higher into the night sky, before a quick sidestep and downwards slam caught him directly in the back of the knees, and smashed him into the asphalt.

Feeling Emerald attempting to influence his mind, he turned to her, the real body, not the illusion she thought he had seen. Acererak reached his hand out, and performed **Sustained Force** and **Bull Rush** in quick succession, dragging her towards him and shoulder bashing her hard enough to send her reeling.

Acting before she could get her bearings, Acererak delivered what would normally be a lethal knee strike, but what turned out to be a terribly broken nose and a serious concussion, even through what was left of her aura.

Following through with the knee strike came a swift kick, his inhumanly large metal boots impacting her chest and sending her flying. She came to a rest next to Cinder, and a barely conscious Mercury soon joined them, courtesy of a light throw from the lich.

Roman looked on in awe, eyes and mouth wide open at the display of skill and strength he'd just witnessed. In under 10 seconds, Acererak had basically beaten down Cinder, Emerald and Mercury, the third of which had both his prosthetic legs neatly sheared off at the knee. Not below or above the knee, directly through the knee, and seeing as how the sword had shorn through the toughest part of the atlas grade bionic legs with minimal resistance, flesh would be of no concern

"I would have liked another moon or so to plan this, but it seems you've unintentionally forced my hand, Roman." Acererak spoke to the mob boss, sending shivers down his spine.

"Yeah, sorry about that I guess," He scratched the back of his head as the White Fang began to file out of the building, "looks like you really didn't need it though…"

Wordlessly, Acererak strode over to the down group, and wrapped a single massive hand around Cinders throat, who was too stunned to really do anything.

"Let me make this clear, Cinder Fall," The harsh and aggressively cold voice stopped her struggling, "the White Fang are under my protection now. If you so much as cross us again, I-" He would have continued, but Cinder had launched a huge fireball into his face, point blank, cutting him off.

"I will make you wish you had never been born." His booming voice echoed out of the smoke, now sounding like he was going to tear her limbs off slowly. The smoke cleared, and she could see the damage that had been done, and it was devastating.

The entire left side of his face was gone, flesh and muscle incinerated down to the now charred and soot coated bone, showing his white teeth, curved fangs, jawbone, nasal cavity, and even his empty eye socket, the ocular organ having been completely destroyed.

"Scared?" He said, the faint clack of his bones audible. If he was smiling, she couldn't tell, but judging by the right side of his face, he absolutely was. His empty eye socket blazed to life, an orb of green fire roiling about in his skull.

"Now run home, run home to your master with your tail between your legs." He dropped her, and she began scrambling backwards, before shakily getting to her feet, "You are weak. It is as simple as that."

" _Emerald, get up!"_ She whispered at the mint haired girl with some force, " _Grab Mercury, we need to go."_

"But if you cross me again," He stopped, and held his hand out toward the red garbed woman, his fist open, before he closed it slightly.

"I will tear you apart." Cinder felt a pain, a suffocating pain, deep in her chest, like her heart was being crushed. Then, as soon as it appeared, the pain disappeared.

"Leave."

They did.

"Well that was dramatic," Roman said, breaking the tense silence after a few seconds, "and I don't mean to rain on your parade, but why did you let them go?"

"Killing a few pawns, however powerful they may be, accomplishes nothing." Acererak responded as his monstrous sword disappeared from his grip. "This will send a message to their master, one I hope I made clear."

"Makes sense," Torchwick shrugged as he looked at Neo, who mirrored the gesture, "always works for me."

"So...Jaune." The mob boss said, trying to alleviate the terse mood.

"What of him?" Acererak said, his voice somewhat distorted by the sounds of his grey flesh growing back over his face.

"Good kid, but what is he?" Roman asked, attempting in vain to ignore the nauseating sounds of an eyeball squelching into a socket.

"Jaune is...a few things." Acererak began to stride into the warehouse, "By some definitions he an aasimar, by some a demon, but by most a cross between the two. He takes from both sides, the more human appearance of aasimar, the strength of a demon, the golden glowing eyes of an aasimar, and the fiery powers of demonkind."

"So a half-breed?" A white fang grunt piped up.

"A possibly offensive definition, but not incorrect. And of course, his existence was disliked by both aasimar and demonkind, so his orphanage was rather expected."

* * *

"You're adopted?" The young girl asked, having pried a little too far into Jaunes life for his comfort. Of course he wasn't mad at her, she was just a kid, but he knew he shouldn't reveal anything too sensitive about him.

"Come with me." Glynda said as she appeared in the doorway, motioning to the girl sitting next to the knight, drawing an inaudible sigh of relief from the blond. Jaune tried to pass the time by himself, with his breathing exercises, and trying to listen in on the conversation.

Giving up after a few minutes, Jaune decided to check his scroll, and activated it to see a few messages from both Acererak and Morrigan, one telling him to meet at a warehouse in town, and the other giving a description of a spiky haired, red eyed man with a sword and an alcohol problem, and to avoid him at all costs.

Quickly explaining his situation to the two, Jaune swiftly received two responses; 'Understood. Meet with me as soon as you can.', and 'Aww, being a hero already? So proud!', from Acererak and Morrigan respectively.

"It was awesome to meet you Mister Ozpin!" The girl said as Glynda led her out of the building, waving to Jaune as she was guided outside. Once she was gone, Ozpin poked his head out of the room and waved Jaune inside.

"So it seems you've met Ruby." The headmaster said once the knight was seated, an empty plate on the table in front of then

"I have," Jaune affirmed, nodding, "she's nice. A little hyper, but a good person."

"Indeed," the grey haired professor said, nodding in agreement, "but do you think she can make it at Beacon?"

"I'd bet she has the skills to make it there, but I cannot judge her fully yet." The knight answered honestly.

"I assumed you'd say something like that…" Ozpin muttered, before waving Jaune out, "anyway, that is all. Glynda can take you back to Beacon when you wish."

"Actually Sir, I've a question for you." Jaune turned back to the headmaster before he left the room, "I overheard your conversation with Ruby, and you mentioned her eyes. What does that matter?"

After a few moments of silence, the man responded.

"Do you mind if I tell you a story?"

* * *

"Morrigan, explain." Acererak said as the nevermore stepped off the heavily damaged bullhead, Edgar on her shoulder and the zombified pilot walking out after her, the twin puncture wounds in his neck speaking to what had happened.

"Someone's onto us," She growled, her cheek and neck healed from her quick blood drain of the unfortunate pilot, but her red eyes still leaving contrails in the air as they smoldered in anger, "The man I described, Qrow Branwen, brother of Raven Branwen."

"Is it possible those two are working together?" The necromancer asked, his green eyes scanning the hole in the warehouse wall. He stepped back inside, the electric lights flickering back on.

"No. Raven explained to me their history, and suffice to say, while she isn't our enemy, we may still have an issue." Morrigan calmed down, the trails of red light fading from the air. "This Qrow is in league with Ozpin, the Beacon headmaster."

"Makes sense, Ozpin's got eyes all over the place." Roman agreed, with Neo nodding affirmatively next to him, "Only reason he hadn't busted my operations up until now was just that he had much more serious business to deal with."

"That is an issue." Acererak mussed to himself as he heard footsteps pounding towards the building, "Because we're far too committed to simply pull Jaune out of Beacon at this time."

"Speak of the devil…" Morrigan smiled as the young half demon aasimar himself entered, his tabard a little roughed up and his face streaked with soot.

"Hello Lord Acererak," Jaune bowed to the giant lich, before turning to the nevermore, "Hello Lady Morrigan, I apologi-"

"Hey Jaune!" Morrigan shouted, almost bounding over to the young man and scooping him into a motherly hug, "I got your message, are you alright?" She cooed, drawing a heated flush of embarrassment to Jaunes face as the undead swordsman wiped the slot off his cheek and fixed his tabard with a simple spell, and drawing a smirk to Acererak as he chuckled to himself.

Despite Jaunes position as a deacon in the 142nd Darkrusader Legion, one that lent itself to extended periods away from home, Morrigan and 'Jauney', as she called him, had a very close relationship. While respecting the maternal instincts of Morrigan, who had been stripped of the chance to have children of her own when she died, ( _something she had always and still does want)_ Acererak still felt she doted over him a little much, a topic she constantly fiercely debated with him, much to the chagrin of those working at Acereraks palace.

"Don't torment him too much Lady Morrigan," Acererak interjected, internally snickering when Jaune shot him a look that meant ' _thanks_ ', "we've still much to discuss."

"Correct, my Lord," Interjected Zalthar, who had just appeared, literall having melted out of the shadows, "And I come bearing good news."

"Just what I've been looking for, Sir Zalthar." The lich nodded to himself, before turning to the table next to him, "Let's discuss what to do next."

* * *

"Please stop…" came the strained voice of Ruby Rose, who could swear she felt her spine cracking.

She knew Yang wasn't trying to hurt her, but when your sister is strong enough to punch apart rocks, overzealous sibling hugs hurt.

"But I'm so proud of you!" came the voice of the blonde responsible for her sisters plight.

"Really, sis, it was nothing."

"What do you mean? It was incredible! Everyone at Beacon is going to think you're the bee's knees!"

"I don't wanna be the bee's knees. Okay? I don't wanna be any kind of knees! I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees."

"What's with you? Aren't you excited?"

"Of course, I'm excited. I just… I got moved ahead two years. I don't want people to think I'm special or anything."

Yang raised an eyebrow before shrugging and throwing an arm around her little sisters shoulders. "But you are special. A lot of people may only see you as just small and helpless. They may see you as just a child. But they'll be surprised when a warrior soon runs wild."

The argument made sense to Ruby, but unfortunately only made her more nervous.

With an interruption that mercifully spared Ruby from having to respond, a television flickered to life on the screen. "The robbery was led by the nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick who continues to evade authorities."

"If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. Back to you, Lisa."

"Thank you, Cyril," said a woman with violet hair. "In other news, this Saturday's Faunus Civil Rights protest turned dark when members of the White Fang disrupted the ceremony. The once peaceful organization has now disrupted—"

Cutting off the newscast, another woman appeared, this time, Ruby recognized her as the woman from a few nights before. "Hello, and welcome to Beacon."

"Who's that?" asked Yang.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch. I'm a professor at Beacon."

"Oh."

Professor Goodwitch continued, "You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future huntsmen and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it.

"You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task. And now, it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." The television flickered off

"Oh, wow!" said Ruby, rushing over to one of the windows on the ship, getting a wide, scenic view of the entire city. "You can see Signal from here," she said to Yang.

"I guess home isn't too far after all."  
"Beacon's our home now."

"And you're gonna love it!"

She was not currently loving it.

Yang had sped off and abandoned her, and in the space of three seconds went from excited and a little nervous to on the ground surrounded by suitcases being yelled at by some white haired girl with a sword in a dress.

In between picking herself off the ground, frantically apologizing, and being yelled at, Ruby sneezed mid rant, birthing a monstrous fireball into existence, sending smoke into the air and soot all over the place.

"Unbelievable!" shouted the girl in white. "This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!"

"I'm really, really sorry!" said Ruby, looking at the ground.

"You complete dolt! What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?"

Ruby stammered awkwardly.

"This isn't your ordinary combat school. It's not just sparring and practicing, you know. We're here to fight monsters, so—watch where you're going!"

"Hey! I said I was sorry, princess!"

"It's heiress, actually," corrected another girl, this one dressed in blacks and whites. She walked up to them. "Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world."

"Finally! Some recognition," said Weiss, her voice confident and assured.

"The same company," continued the newcomer, "infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners."

"Why you—! How dare—!"

With a derisive huff, Weiss stormed off, her servants dragging and carrying her luggage along

Despite the catharsis of seeing her tormenter get talked down like she did, Ruby's kind hearted nature won out in the end.

"I promise I'll make this up to you!" she called. "I guess I'm not the only one having a rough first day.

"So…" said Ruby, shifting back to the dark haired girl, and stopped once she saw that she had already left.

For the second time in 10 minutes, Ruby collapsed to the ground. "Welcome to Beacon," she grumbled to herself. Now lost in her hopelessness, she barely realized another person was standing over her.

"Are you alright?" The person said, holding out a gauntleted hand to the down girl, which Ruby gratefully took.

"We've met before, but I am Jaune," He said, giving a small bow, "Jaune Arc."

"I'm Ruby Rose!" She piped, before realizing who he was. "OMIGOSH! You're the guy from the robbery!"

"Yeah, I am." Jaune chuckled a bit. "Glad to see you made it into Beacon."

"Thanks!" She beamed, before calming a little, "Uh, do you know where we should go?"

"Yes, the auditorium is this way." Jaune said, as the two walked off, their chat eventually coming around the the topic of weapons.

* * *

"Aww, Jauney's already got a friend!" Morrigan giggled to herself while Acererak sighed in disappointment. Fortunately, the lack of magic in not just Beacon but this world as a whole allowed Acereraks wraiths free reign to spy and go wherever they wished.

The nevermore guided the wraith down from the top of the building, and observed as it phased through the ceiling, its smoky form and red eyes watching over the whole school.

"My Lord, the first prototypes have been completed." Spoke a skeleton, dressed in the black robes of scholars, the slim, almost form fitting cloak marked with soot and smudges.

"Excellent," Acererak boomed, motioning for Morrigan to follow him, "I am looking forward to using these, 'guns'. They seem to be quite powerful."

"They are indeed Lord Acererak," The skeleton affirmed, his bleached white skull forming a deathly grin, "I hope you will enjoy them." The undead finished as they entered the room, currently packed with about a dozen other skeletons and three or four White Fang.

Acererak strode forward, and grabbed the handle of a gun sized for him. Its design was offensively simple by the standards of Remnant, but style and flair were understandable sacrifices when making prototypes.

"A bit lighter than I assumed, but and impressively comfortable grip…" The lich trailed off as he hefted the absolutely massive pistol that had been resized for him. Measuring at least a foot long, the block, greyish black pistol felt rather nice, even through his thick metal gauntlet.

Raising the gun, Acererak took aim at a target that had been set up, using his memory of how the white fang used the devices to guide him. Once he lined up the crosshairs with the target, he pulled the trigger, a primal emotion stirring within his dead heart at the satisfying bang and kick of the weapon.

He smiled as he lowered the gun, smoke drifting from the end of the barrel. He set it down on the table again, and looked over at the paper target, a neat hole slightly off of its center.

"Excellent, these will soon be very useful."

* * *

It had taken some time, but Ruby managed to track down Yang after Jaune showed her the way into the building. She was going to try and introduce him to her sister, but it looked like he had wandered off too.

It was then that Weiss reappeared.

"Pyrrha, I didn't think I'd see you here!" Jaune said as he approached the champion, "Congratulations on making it in."

"Oh, hi Jaune." She smile back at him, gently waving. She looked around the expansive room, and at the headmaster standing on the stage.

"Jaune, is he supposed to be doing something?" She asked, referring to Ozpin.

"I'd assume so." Jaune replied, "Sir Ozpin isn't one for wasting time."

"Do you...know him?" She seemed confused.

"Not really," The knight scratched the back of his head, just below his blonde ponytail, "I got to Beacon about a week too early, so I've been staying here."

"How did you get to Beacon?" She asked, rather puzzled, and only getting more puzzled by his answer.

"I walked." Jaune answered truthfully, before he heard a voice behind him.

"Read this, and don't ever speak to me again."

"Look…" interjected another, more friendly voice, "it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?"

"Yeah! Great idea, sis. Hello, Weiss. I'm Ruby. Wanna hang out? We could go shopping for school supplies." Said Ruby.

"Yeah! And we can paint our nails, and try on clothes, and make a study group!" The voice snarked.

"Wow! Really?"  
"No." Jaune could feel the apathy.

"I'll keep this brief. You've travelled here today in search of knowledge—to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you've finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see… is wasted energy, in need of purpose." The headmaster spoke, finally going up to the podium. His voice sounded across the room, drawing the attention of the crowd.

"You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only take you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

At that, the headmaster exited and Glynda took his place, giving further directions.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You're dismissed."

* * *

"It's like a big slumber party!" Yang shouted as she flopped down onto a bedroll, stretching out and taking up much more space than she needed.

"I don't think Dad would approve of all the boys though," Replied the younger sister, writing on a sheet of paper.

"I know I do!" Yang said, observing the multitudes of bros and dudes all flexing and doing dude things, giving her a fairly nice gun show. "Anyway, what's that?" she said to Ruby, referring to the writing she was working on.

"A letter to the gang back at Signal. I promised to tell them all about Beacon and how things are going."

"Aw! That's so cute!"

"Shut up!" squeaked Ruby, batting her sister away with a pillow, "I didn't get to take my friends with me to school. It's weird not knowing anyone here."

"Staying close to your friends is very important," Came the voice of Jaune from behind the two sisters, "I still keep in contact with my brothers, and I've not seen them for a few months now."

"Brothers?" Ruby asked, as Yang checked him out. He was wearing a pair of tough looking denim like pants, with a simple grey shirt, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. "I thought you said you were an only child?"

"Oh, not like that." Jaune clarified, "My closest friends all refer to ourselves as each others brothers."

"Hate to interrupt this heartfelt moment, but who are you?" Yang interrupted, breaking up the heartfelt moment.

"Oh yeah!" Ruby piped up, turning her half written letter over, "This is Jaune, he's the guy I told you about!"

"Really?" Yang cocked and eyebrow, "You're the 'Black Knight' Ruby won't shut up about?" Drawing a small shout of indignation and a quiet muttering of ' _language'_.

"Yeah I think so," He reached a hand out to Yang, "Names Janue Arc."

"Yang Xiao-Long, and same." She took his hand and shook it, eyes flicking down for a split second when their limbs touched. The reason for doing so was that his body temperature was so incredibly high she worried he was on fire.

"Hey, you alright?" Jaune asked, a little concerned.

"I'm fine," Yang removed her hand, now a little flustered at being called out like that, "You're just really hot."

"Yaaaaang!" Ruby groaned, putting her face in her pillow, much to the now increased embarrassment of Yang, who was quick to clarify herself.

"Not like that, Ruby," Yang poked her sister jokingly, "Like temperature wise, although you're not too bad looking." The blonde brawler finished, giving Jaune a playful squeeze on the thigh.

"I, uh, I mean…" The knight stammered nervously, his face flushing, as Yang just made it worse.

"Also I like your ears," She stood up and tapped the organs in question, "They're pretty cute~"

And that did it. Now the reddish tint spread from his cheeks to his slightly pointed ears, his entire body heating up considerably beyond its already abnormally high point. Tiny amounts of steam began rising off his skin, and he could tell a few sparks were dancing around in his long ochre yellow locks, and a faint trail of smoke wafting from his nose and mouth.

"Oh, you've got a fire semblance?" Yang asked.

' _Great, she noticed'_

"That's pretty cool!"

' _Alright, she's fine with it.'_

"So Jaune," Ruby asked, both wanting to stop the exchange and Jaune to stop smoking, "Know any good stories?"

"Any good stories?" His eyes widened, "I thought you'd never ask."

He took a seat, sitting cross legged next to the two sisters, who settled down on their bedrolls, prepared to listen.

"This is the story of a great hero," Jaune began, the sparks and smoke gone, his long golden yellow hair framing his face, only his slightly pointed ears poking through, "a brave adventurer named, Erandiel."

* * *

Acereraks eyes opened, for the Lich was momentarily stirred out of his meditation at the feeling of what he thought was a long dead emotion, longing.

He attempted to return to his silence, but it had been irreversibly disturbed, and all he could process was him. Or rather his soul.

And the deep aching it felt, like his heart was collapsing in.

He ignored it.

 **Nice, 6k+ words. Only took me two damn months. Next one should be coming a little sooner than that, sorry for the wait friends.**

 **As you may realize, I am taking some liberties with my interpretstion of the D &D magic system, so not everything is as literally translated as it could be. I'm doing this mainly to try and make it more fluid within the story, and more adaptable to it can be used more specifically, if ya catch my drift.**

 **Also, pls bear with me if I misuse any spells. I'm far from a D &D expert, so all pointers and corrections are welcome.**

 **Ps, Kenmadragon, I'll be explaining shortly why I had Jaune use Greater Restoration.**

 **Thanks for sticking around!**

 **-Athk0r3**


	4. Chapter 3: A Hero's Tale

**Bit of a short chapter comrades, but I wanted to get it out. I'll explain at the bottom.**

 **Begin!**

* * *

"And there he was, at the razors edge between creation and destruction, the Edge of Oblivion," Jaune said, his voice rising in volume and emphasis, "Staring into the eye, of Altakreth, the Void Dragon."

* * *

A crack of thunder split the swirling vortex of a sky, briefly illuminating the land around him, giving the adventurer another view of the wasteland around him. A desolate hellscape, nothing but dark mud and ash layered ground, with black ice, ash and rain hailing from the dark cloud cover, permanently enshrouding the land in eternal night. All around, the ghosts of trees lanced upwards, thick, pointed spears of barren vegetation, rising unimaginably high, some piercing the dark far above.

It went by many names. The elves called it, 'Manke i' taure tyela', 'Where the Forest Ends'. The dwarves called it 'Where Diamonds Die'. The Celestials called it 'So hwou si soop', or 'The End of Creation'. But in the common tongue, it was known by one name; 'The Edge of Oblivion.'

For it was truly the end. A small continent in the middle of the Great Sea, the Edge was almost entirely inaccessible to all. Surrounded by a perpetual storm system, the Edge of Oblivion's blasted hellscape of an environment was marked by two things. A titanic mountain range ringing the entire continent, and a great swirling vortex, a portal of immeasurable proportions directly in the center.

It only took a second, but in the blink of an eye, _he_ appeared. Erandiel gasped, his grip on his longsword and shield tightening as the burning purple eye of Altakreth glared down at him, an all consuming madness barely contained with pure magical affinity alone.

He was titanic, at least three hundred twenty feet long from maw to tail tip, and now with his midnight black hide illuminated by the bolts of lightning raining down behind him, Erandiel could see his entire form.

Beginning with the head, Altakreth sported a set of great jaws, U shaped and lined with two rows of razor like fangs. Each tooth was like black glass, with wicked points and vicious edges, the surfaces pulsing with a deep violet hue, which appeared bright against the backdrop of his maw, from which it appears so dark no light could illuminate it.

Crowning his twenty foot head was a set of magnificent horns, each of the five protrusions measuring at least a dozen feet in length, with gentle curves, making them flow like rivers as they glowed an ethereal purple.

The dragons long neck, fifty feet of muscular scale and might, melted into the body, showing a torso of around thirty feet, with the hips some other twenty feet behind that. From his main body came a series of limbs. Great arms, some forty feet from shoulder to claw tip pawed at the earth, leaving massive prints wherever they fell. From his hips came two forty foot legs, digitigrade, capped with wide draconic feet, the three clawed appendages raking the ground, rich violet talons tearing huge rents and trenches simply by moving.

The other half of the dragon was taken up by his tail. Two hundred feet of thick scales and muscle coated bone, midnight hide glinting with the piercing gaze of the lightning. The ridge, a series of great pointed spines, each with a needle point and gentle wave, that began at his head and ran down to his tail ended at the end of his tail was instead a void of inky black, flowing like the fur at the end of a lions tail, leaving inky black tails when it moved.

A deep rumbling from Altakreths chest came a second before his gargantuan wings unfurled. A two hundred foot wingspan came from his back, and would have blotted out the sun has the warming light of the star even been visible. Instead, they cast yet another shadow over the dead lands, as he unleashed a roar that split the heavens.

An unfathomably loud noise, like a deafening shriek fused with a booming thunderclap blasted out of the dragons mouth, a visible wave from the roar slamming into Eraniel and knocking him down.

With his presence announced sufficiently, Altakreth lit up in a display of draconic strength. His glowing purple eyes glowed brighter, the harsh light making his irises and pupils indistinguishable from the rest of the organs. His scutes began glowing, his now luminous underside illuminating the ground beneath his titanic frame.

All over his body, the spaces in between his scales began glowing, just like his horned crown and spiked ridge, with an almost majestic purple hue. His teeth began to glow, as did the inside of his mouth, transforming the great yawning black abyss of his maw into a furious vortex that glowed with the light of a raging fire.

His monstrous wings became awe inspiring light shows, like portals into the void between stars themselves. Across the jet black canvas of Altakreths wings came brilliant streaks of light, racing across his wings like comets across the night sky, mirroring the arcs of arcane power crackling across his body, purple bolts of raw magic power leapt from horn to horn, down his spine, across his body, like a series of lightning rods in a thunderstorm.

Erandiel himself was paralyzed with fear, and could only watch in horror as the laws of gravity itself began falling apart, random stones and bits of ice beginning to float, as the glowing violet claw of the Void Dragon delivered a savage uppercut.

* * *

"Did he die?" Ruby whispered, having found her way into Yangs arms. Everyone was on the edge of their seats, or at least they would have been were they in seats. It had only taken a few minutes of storytelling, around three quarters of the soon to be students had forgone sleeping in favor of listening intently to the story.

" _Shhh_ ," Yang whispered back, trying to listen to the story, "He's still going."

"But through an incredible stroke of luck," Jaune continued, "He survived, the tip of the blazing violet claw just nicking him, sending him flying."

* * *

With a sharp cry of pain, Erandiel dragged himself to his feet, and tried in vain to staunch the veritable waterfall of blood pouring from his face. His eye was gone, the dragon's claw having carved a trench from his mid chest to the top of his forehead, splitting his cheek open and destroying his right eye.

At another booming roar, Erandiel turned and ran, longsword and shield behind him in the dirt. He sprinted as fast as he possibly, could, his half-elven heritage helping somewhat, his large legs carrying him at impressive speeds for someone wearing armor.

But right on his heels was Altakreth, his footsteps shaking the land, each booming rumble almost knocking Erandiel off his feet. The whoosh of air and the slight groan of exertion from the legendary dragon was all the adventurer needed to dive for cover, as Altakreths titanic tail slammed down where he stood naught a second before.

Picking himself up, Erandiel kept running, until he reached the edge. The monstrous vortex at the center of the Edge of Oblivion was right before him, a great yawning void, two miles in diameter, forming a perfect circle around the unfathomable depths.

However, the sheet of ice, around a foot or two thick, and colored with a slight hint of black, was what allowed Erandiel to set foot on it, with the only readily visible side effects being the black ice that began creeping up his boots, as well as the roaring and violent winds suddenly picking up even more, the wind pressure whipping Erendiels cape and waistcloth around and the stinging gales almost blinding his keen elven eyes.

Deciding not to look a gift void in the abyss, he ran. His boots pounding across the ice, the rumbling footfalls of Altakreth keeping him moving. Turning back for a moment, he glimpsed the Void Dragon stepping onto the ice, which shattered under his massive bulk. Stepping back a bit, Altakreth screeched at Erandiel, unleashing a piercing scream, the volume of which not only defended Erandiel for a few seconds, but left a ringing in his ears.

At the center of the ice coated vortex was a great spire. A solid pillar of obsidian hued stone, rising straight up, stabbing through the thick, greyish black clouds like a demented lance thrust towards the sky.

Erandiel sprinted for it, and at the sound of air rushing, he looked up, and saw Altakreth gliding over him, wings partially opened, contrails of inky black void trailing from his midnight wings. He watched as the massive dragon swooped upwards, wings of night carrying him up through the clouds, giving the Edge of Oblivion a glimpse of the world above. The beast swiftly reached the apex of the spire, and landed atop its stony perch.

Altakreth looked down, blazing eyes now pinpricks from atop his roost, and roared once more, the sound and shockwave from the unnatural noise parting the clouds around the spire, letting more and more of the Edge to see the world above.

But with Altakreths fearsome bark came a far worse bite, as he soon backed up his threatening bellows with magical attacks, sending a cascade of flaming violet meteors to rain down from on high, whizzing past his roost, each zipping through the lower cloud cover and down to the vortex below.

It was as if armageddon had descended upon Erandiel, who frantically dodged flaming purple comets, each impact smashing through the ice with no resistance, opening up great stretches of the vortex, the black tinged ice crumbling away into the void below.

With a final leap, Erandiel jumped from the ice to the spire, grabbing hold of small footholds, little black spikes measuring about a foot long each, clinging on for dear life as the rest of the ice fell into the dark.

He waited, hands wrapped around the spikes, holding onto his only lifeline with a death grip that would make a python jealous, for the barrage to stop. Once Altakreths onslaught had ceased, he began to climb, slowly making his way up the spire, the dizzying heights of the peak barely appearing any nearer, even after an hour of climbing.

What did appear, about an hour in and a mile up, was Altakreth. Diving down out of the thick, swirling clouds, his giant frame swooped down, violet flames spilling from his jaws and black darkness trailing from his wings as he bore down on Erandiel.

With an undignified yelp, the renowned adventurer threw himself as far to the side as he could, managing to throw himself just out of the dragons line of sight. And not s moment too soon, as purple fire blasted his previous position, the half second, fly-by roasting entirely melting the stone spikes off the spire,

An audible crunching and scraping noise made itself known as Altakreth himself began holding onto the black stone pillar, claws and talons digging into the surface to give purchase, while the void dragons grip cracked the spire, sending a spiderweb of lines wherever they fell.

Now moving with an incredible pace, Erandiel raced Altakreth up the spire, pitting his speed and nimbleness against his opponents unrelenting stamina and strength.

* * *

"It took him five hours," Jaune said, having attracted about ninety percent of the room to his story, "Five hours of climbing and dodging to reach the spire. Every foot of progress Erandiel made, Altakreth made ten, only keeping ahead of the dragon because of its sheer weight, dragging it down nine feet with each movement."

"Once he breached the cloud layer, which had reformed in the absence of the meteor storm, Erandiel could see the top. He had lost Altakreth some ten minutes ago, and could no longer even hear the beast." Ruby looked around, seeing everyone listening. Even Weiss and Blake, the girl who had defende Ruby against Weiss, the latter of which having put her book down to come listen.

"Above the clouds was only more wasteland," The knight said, "High above the black blanket was a grey ceiling, where the dull grey ash clouds turned into a storm of unholy proportions. A huge, almost jagged hurricane swirled far above, tendrils of lightning illuminating the storm momentarily."

"Just as Erandiel reached the top, just as his left hand reached the ledge…" Jaune paused, " _ **BAM!**_ "

* * *

It only was a split second. A flash of purple light, an intense heat, suddenly his left arm was gone. Adrenaline suppressing the pain, Erandiel quickly grabbed the ledge with his remaining arm, hauling his body up, and collapsing at the top.

Shakily, after a few minutes of wallowing in excruciating pain, he picked himself up. He booming sound of Altakreth nearing the top was getting louder and closer. Now on his feet, Erandiel had long since given up on stopping the steady flow of blood from his ruined eye, his arm no longer a concern, seeing how the wound had been cauterized.

A deep groan of exertion rumbled the pillar, as the massive black and purple paw of Altakreth reached up out of the clouds, and slammed down atop the flat apex of the spire. The perfectly flat surface of spire was about sixty feet in diameter, probably just enough to fit Altakreth.

The obsidian colored stone cracked and gave way partially as the monstrous void dragon heaved itself up onto the flat plane. He glared at Erandiel, blazing purple eyes burning with the fury of a thousand dying stars in the night. Altakreth reared back, sitting up on his two rear legs, and roared, spreading his wings with a flourish that sent inky darkness into the air.

At the dragons rage, the world began falling apart, cracks spiderwebing across the platform, wind swirling faster, debris floating in defiance of gravity, black ice, rain and ash flying upwards, purple mist wafting off the glowing dragons purple highlights, mixing with the thick black darkness trailing from its wings.

From such a closer range, the dragons deafening roar became painful, sharp needles of red hot agony stabbing into Erandiels ears, until they simply gave up, and a muted rumbling and dull ringing was all he could hear.

Altakreth paused, cracking his gaping jaws open, the interior of which began glowing brighter and brighter, accompanied by a deep humming, a bassy, echoing drone that set Erandiels nerves on edge.

Letting his instincts guide him, the adventurer dove to the ground, narrowly avoiding a huge beam of white and purple energy that obliterated the ground where he stood, carving a hole a dozen feet in depth, fading swiftly as steam billowed from the dragons mouth.

Erandiel saw Altakreth rear up again, mouth aglow and deep hum vibrating his chest. He knew this was, it, the end of the line. Here he was, more than half dead, down and arm and an eye, up two deaf ears, bleeding out atop the spire of the Edge of Oblivion.

" _Erandiel…"_ The half-elf adventurer looked around, as the echoey voice returned, " _My faithful servant_."

He tried to speak, but considering he had been essentially deafened, Erandiel had no idea what he was really saying, while the glow of Altakreths maw only got brighter and brighter.

" _You have proven yourself to me…_ " The voice said again, as Erandiel felt power rush into his body, steadily flowing and condensing in his remaining arm, " _You will not survive this...but I'm sure you already knew that. The end is inevitable."_

"Death waits for no man…" He whispered to himself, only a microsecond passing before the reply.

" _Correct."_ It spoke, " _I wait for no man."_

Erandiel watched as Altakreth attacked, the purple energy beam blasting forth from his mouth. Using the power gifted to him, Erandiel retaliated, firing a beam of black and green energy from his right palm. The two attacks collided, pushing against each other in a stunning lightshow. But the raw might of the Void Dragon was winning, and the epicenter of the collision was slowly shifted toward Erandiel.

In a final, valiant act of defiance and desperation, Erandiel pushed all the energy and power he had into the attack, even sacrificing his own to power his final move. Unprepared for the sudden assault, Altakreths blazing eyes widened in shock as the green and black energy beam raced toward him.

* * *

"Erandiels blow pushed through the purple energy, and slammed into Altakreth, the raw necrotic power and strength of his patron, Kelemvor, God of Death, was enough to overpower the might of the dragon, the attack rending his soul from his body, killing the beast." Jaune continued, nearing the end of his tale, "The body hung for a moment, as the eyes dimmed and the glow died out, before the corpse of the dragon fell, all the way down the spire, with darkness trailing form his stilled wings, down into the swirling vortex below."

"Suddenly, the sky cleared, the wind died, and while the storm halted and dissipated, Erandiel dropped," Drawing a hushed gasp from the audience, "first down to one knee, then two, and then to the floor as his strength failed him one last time."

"Slowly, his breathing stilled, his heart stopped, and his eyes shut themselves." Jaune spoke, "The last thing he saw, was a clear night sky, and a single comet racing across the dark."

"This was the end of his story," The knight spoke, seeing saddened looks in the eyes of a few listeners, "he was honored as a legendary hero, known for his final, defiant attack, the Soulpiercer."

"Erandiel, known now as the Void Slayer had won despite his death." The blonde said, the slightly somber look of his audience motivating him to finish. "With the death of Altakreth, the Edge of Oblivion was at peace. The skies cleared, the storms stopped, and the sun shone upon the Dark Continent once more."

"The end." He finished, letting out an exhausted yet satisfied sigh as the two hours of storytelling came to an end. His audience, now seeming much more tired than they had been a few seconds before, gave him a quiet round of applause, and a few thanked him, before heading back to their bedrolls and going to sleep.

All, save for the wraith watching through the window.

* * *

 **Well lookie here, seems I've stopped the whole '2 month wait between chapters' thing for now. I wanted to get this out on halloween, but my Venom Snake costume took more time than I thought it would, but It was abso-fucking-lutley worth it.**

 **But I would have made this chapter go right up to the initiation, but I felt it ended on a really good point for a smaller, almost stand alone chapter, so here it is.**

 **Please review, let me know what you think!**

 **-Athk0r3**


	5. Chapter 4: Initiations and Partners

**I think I'm in a good enough place to start a schedule. Hopefully, HOPEFULLY,** **I'll be able to get a chapter out** _ **at least**_ **every two weeks. Hopefully.**

 **Enjoy another chapter my comrades!**

* * *

"This is definitely not where I left my stuff last night…" Jaune huffed, as he walked to where his locker said it was now. He'd almost reached his locker when he saw Pyrrha talking to another girl near his locker.

"So, Pyrrha," The girl in white said, now within earshot of Jaune, "have you given any thought as to whose team you would like to be on? I'm sure everyone must be eager to unite with such a strong and well-known individual such as yourself."  
Pyrrha seemed to agree somewhat. "I'm not quite sure. I was planning on letting the chips fall where they may."  
"I was thinking maybe we could be on a team together."

"Well, that sounds grand," Pyrrha said, notably unenthused, and only brightening when she saw Jaune approaching.  
"Jaune!"

"Hello Pyrrha," Jaune waved, "Making friends?"

"Yes, we were just talking about which team we'll be on," the girl in white said, before introducing herself unintentionally, "Weiss Schnee and Pyrrha Nikos, partners at beacon…" She said almot wistfully.

"Pleasure to meet you Miss Schnee," He gave a small polite bow, "I am Jaune Arc."

Momentarily taken aback by his politeness, Weiss quickly recovered and returned the gesture with a curtsy, neither of them noticing the look Pyrrha was giving them.

"So Jaune," Pyrrha said, stepping a tiny bit closer to him, something that didn't go unnoticed by Weiss, "Whos team are you looking to be on?"

He shrugged, "I'd like to be on a team with you and possibly Ruby, but I'm willing to just roll with whatever happens."

"Well I think the three of us would make an excellent team." Weiss said, stepping closer to Jaune, a subtle move that did not go unnoticed by Pyrrha, who stepped a tiny bit closer.

"Possibly," Jaune said, cluelessly stepping away to his locker to retrieve his stuff, "what powers do you two have? You strike me as an ice user, Miss Schnee." He said, pulling his silvery chainmail over his clothing, and starting to affix his black plating.

"Why would you say that?" She said, now showing a little animosity.

"You remind me of the winter," He said, tightening the straps to his greaves and kneecaps, "Powerful, precise, elegant," Jaune stood up to grab his chest plate, "Rather attractive." Drawing a reddish tinge from the heiresses face.

"Stop that," She said, her hand automatically moving to touch the small scar over her eye"I-"

"I was not trained to lie so carelessly," He said, "and I think that little scar over your eye is cute."

Weiss turned away, spluttering and red in the face, with Pyrrha glaring slightly, and Jaune continuing to make things worse with every passing sentence.

"I must admit I'm a little jealous," the knight said, adjusting his black and gold tabard, "Your eyes are such a nice shade of blue, and I really like your style. But white and blue never really worked for me, I prefer bolder colors."

"T-thank you Jaune…" She said attempting to save face.

"I'd be more than happy with you as my partner Miss Schnee." Jaune said, putting his final gauntlet on. "Fire and Ice," he looked over to her, his glowing golden eyes coming in contact with her frosty blue, "Silver and Gold. I think we'd work quite well together."

"I'd like to be your partner too Jaune," She said, a fierce red hue now present on her face, and an angry glare on Pyrrhas, "It was nice to meet you." She blurted out before turning and leaving, her face only getting redder when Jaune called out to her.

"I'll see you around Miss Schnee, It was a pleasure to meet you as well." He then turned to Pyrrha, "I'd also really like to be your partner too Pyrrha."

"What?"

"You seem to be a skilled fighter," He gestured to her spear and shield, "Efficient weapons, inspiring presence, strong with grace."

' _You're not going to say I'm attractive?_ She thought to herself, as Jaune sheathed his sword and slung a black heater shield across his back.

"Of course you're attractive," Jaune said quite matter-of-factly, causing the Mistralian to let out an audible _eep!,_ at having realized she said that out loud, "It's just that Miss Schnee seemed like she needed a compliment."

"So you were…" Pyrrha thought for a moment, "Just saying that?"

"Of course not, shes very pretty, in a royal princess kind of way." He said, bringing the frown back onto her face, "You are beautiful in a...warrior kind of way, right?"

"What do you mean?" She said, her face now turning a little red.

"You're strong, slim, fit, quite tall," He said, now turning to her, "You're clearly a fighter."

"Well, I suppose I've got to make my way to the cliff for initiation," He said, looking at a clock and then beginning to walk away, "I also very much enjoy your style, red and bronze suits you."

"T-thanks."

* * *

A minute or two later, Jaune found Ruby, loving holding her weapon in her arms, drawing a slightly disappointed look from her sister. Waving to them, he began the conversation.

"Hello Ruby."

"Oh! Hi Jaune!" She said, energetically waving back go him, "We were just talking about the initiation, are you excited?"

"That I am," He chuckled, partially drawing his sword out from its sheath, the steely silver metal glinting in the artificial lights, "Aurum Mors has been sitting in her sheath for too long."

"You name your weapons too?" Yang said, now tempted to bring out her shotgun gauntlets.

"A weapon is an extension of your body," He reasoned, "Something that important and essential should have a name. I even named my shield," Jaune continued, drawing the black and gold heater style shield from behind his back, "This is Aurum Turrim."

"Can I see your sword?" Ruby asked tentatively, exhaling in a sigh of relief when Jaune agreed, and drew then handed the blade to her.

"Woah," She said, not expecting the weight, the sword being a bit heavier than it looked. Despite being a little heavy, and a bit large for her, it was exceptionally well balanced, and she had no trouble handling it. Looking at the silvery steel blade, she gasped. All along the blade were patterns, tiny darkened lines that seemed to be part of the metal, forming an image like a river snaking down the swords length.

"How did you do that?" She whispered, eyes wide.

"The blade is True Damascus steel, with a river of fire acid etch pattern," Jaune explained, taking the sword back from her, drawing out a small noise of disappointment, "It's a trade secret."

"How about those gauntlets? They seem to fit you pretty well." Yang cut in, before Ruby could start begging him for his secrets, Yeah, now that I've got a better look, your whole suit is really slim for plate armor."

"Here, try it on and see for yourself." He said, pulling off his gauntlet and handing it to the blonde.

She slipped it on, Jaunes larger hands lending the gauntlet to a rather uncomfortable fit, as she had too much room to move around. Then, she gauntlet began shrinking, and conforming to her hand and forearm, the cool metal tightening around her arm, giving it a nearly skin-tight and form fitting fit.

"Huh," she flexed her hand, internally remarking on how exceptionally little it restricted her movement, and looking almost longingly at the four dull, triangular studs on the knuckles, which would most probably lend the metal gloves to a hefty punch, "that's pretty cool. But how in the hell did you get it to do that?"

"Trade secret." Jaune smiled, taking the gauntlet back and putting it on his own hand, the metal expanding and contracting again to fit him.

"Rrrrr," Ruby said, now a little angry Jaune wasn't telling her how he did this. The patterns on his sword were beautiful, and apparently he had a literal one size fits all suit of armor. Not sharing was just selfish. "Well fine! It's not like I want to know how you make it, that big suit wouldn't even let me fight properly."

"The protection it affords Is a pretty reasonable sacrifice for the very small lack of flexibility. When it comes down to it, I'd rather have a steel plate in front of me than wear a dress."

"Excuse me, my _combat skirt_ protects me well enough, _and_ lets me move how I want!" The younger girl argued back.

"What happens if your frilly outfit gets set on fire?" Jaune retorted.

"What if _yours_ catches on fire?" She said, poking the tough, black and gold tabard on his chest.

"Well first off, it wont, I've tried," he began, "and second, even if it _could_ be set alight, I can just take it off and keep going."

"Alright, alright, that's enough you two…" Yang said, stepping in between the two and breaking up the argument. Before it could start up again, Glynda's voice blared over the loudspeaker.

"Attention, the initiation begins in three minutes. Please make your way to the cliff, thank you."

"Oh gosh, I've got to go!" Ruby jumped, before draggin Yang off by the arm and waving to Jaune, "By Jaune!"

" _I could have sworn we were arguing a second ago_ …" The knight muttered to himself, before he began jogging to the cliff.

* * *

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with will be your partner for your time at Beacon."

Jaunes head whipped to the side as a sound like glass shattering rang in his ears. Instead, Ruby's normally positive and cheery demeanor had been replaced by one of shock, sadness and hopelessness. Wincing a little to himself at seeing the girl so dejected, he forced his eyes ahead of himself, he began thinking of a way to get down the cliff. Currently, his leading idea was to just kinda jump off, and use his sword to control his descent by occasionally plunging it into the rock. From there he'd jump onto the ruined structure at the base, and make his way through the forest from there.

"...destroy everything in your path, or you will die." Ozpin said, bringing a smile onto the knights face. Instructions and missions like that were rather befitting of a Darkrusader infantryman.

"Any questions?" The headmaster asked, and seeing no hands raised, took a slip from his mug and smiled. "Good. You may take your places."

Jaune rolled his head, cracking his neck, drawing a wince from Yang and a sigh of slight pleasure from the knight. He saw Glynda, her finger hovering right above a symbol on her scroll, probably a timer of sorts. He readied himself to jump, getting his legs ready for the fall.

With a press of a button, Glynda activated the metal pad beneath all the students, launching them and sending them flying off the cliff, Jaune included, plans for a controlled and relatively safe descent flung off the cliff with him.

' _Well this changes things a bit…'_ Jaune thought to himself as he soared through the air, the wind whistling in his slightly pointed ears. ' _Ooh, there's a pond, I should probably go for that.'_

* * *

"Is he going to be alright?" Morrigan asked, watching Jaune through the wraith hidden in the clouds. She watched as a flickering golden hemisphere formed around the young knight as he dropped through the sky.

"He should be fine." Acererak said, testing out the latest model of handgun his scholars had cooked up. With a design that most of remnant would consider minimalist, Acererak easily recognized the beauty in such a thing.

Morrigan still winced as Jaune slammed into the pond at terminal velocity, throwing up a huge amount of water.

* * *

"Should _not_ have done that…" Jaune growled to himself, smoke and sparks wafting off him, "I can't waste more time drying off."

His plan had worked well enough, and the **Protective Aura** spell had managed to save him, even as agitated as he was. Whenever he got worked up emotionally or physically, his pyromancy just kind of took the wheel, often making things awkward for those around him, especially when he starts trailing flames, evident when he fell from the sky as a literal flaming comet, and landing in the pond with a fiery explosion, sending plumes of steam into the air as the water was vaporized.

Concentrating, Jaune used his telekinetic bond with his mount to summon it. His steed and companion of sorts had been wandering around the forest, staying out of sight and keeping hidden, but always in range to get to Jaune if needed. This was the preferable option for now, as summoning and desummoning the companion would have wasted too much time to be efficient.

With a crackle like a fireplace in winter, Vuklahn bounded out of the trees coming to a stop next to his master.

Vulkahn was a drake, a dragon like creature possessing all the qualities of true dragons (reptilian features, magical affinity), but lacked their almost signature wings, making him appear like an oversized four limbed lizard.

He was also a magma drake, as evidenced by his physical characteristics. The scales on his lupine, almost wolflike build, were a deep, dark red, and rough, like volcanic rock. Between his scales and marking his body were miniature rivers of magma, glowing orange and red streaks in his flesh, his underside aglow with lava.

His three clawed draconic feet were capped with thick talons that glowed a molten white, like forged iron, scorching the ground beneath him, just like the crocodilian teeth set in his glowing red mouth. The twin, straight horns that crowned his draconic skull were a solid black, gently pulsing with a ruddy glow.

"Hey buddy…" Jaune scratched the back of his head with a gauntlet, smirking as the line of rippling flames running down his companions spine picked up at the physical contact, "ready for some action?" He finished, as a beowulf leapt out of the woods behind him, only to be intercepted by Vulkahn, white hot claws and fiery might turning the grimm beneath the drake into a mess of black blood and ash.

"Looks like we've got company…" Jaune said, unbacking his shield and drawing his sword, as a pack of around a dozen black wolves surrounded the two. Rumbling with a sound like rocks in a washer machine, Vulkahn squared his scaly paws and bared his fangs.

A second of deliberation flashed across the eyes of the grimm, before they charged, beelining straight toward Jaune and Vulkahn. The two met the horde of darkness with equal fervor, the knight slaying the beasts with sword and shield, each strike powerful but precise and calculated, staying brutally efficient while still retaining a kind of grace, while the dragon tore through its foes with unrestrained savagery and reckless power.

Finishing off the last of the beowulves, Jaune decapitating his and Vulkahn incinerating it with a jet of fire, the pair relaxed, Jaune sheathing his sword and Vulkahn roaring in triumph, producing a noise like a roaring flame.

Only to have their moment interrupted by a massive black and white bear charge out of the woods and backhand the knight into a tree.

Feeling the crunch of the bark as he impacted the tree, Jaune dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way as soon as he could, making the Ursa Major miss him by less than a foot and smash through the tree, having too much momentum to stop itself in time.

Casting and sending a large **Fireball** toward the creature, Jaunes face rose then fell as the grimm shrieked in pain and surprise but quickly charged back out, only bearing a few scorch marks on its bone plating.

"Bad idea." Jaune said to himself, looking on as the flames quickly began to spread, setting the woods alight around the three figures. A tree fell towards the grimm, which swatted it out of the air with an errant paw and roared, prompting Jaune to give to another fireball to the face.

Seeing as how it only served to annoy the monstrosity further, Jaune decided to hightail it out of there, leaping onto Vulkahns back and spurring him into action. The magma drake rumbled in content as he charged through the woods, leaving a trail of fire in his wake, leaping over fallen trees and roots, bounding over the ground with insane speed.

"Good job, just try and keep hidden," The knight whispered, "Still want to keep you on the down low."

After receiving a nod from the magma drake, Jaune continued moving forward, his mount gently padding through the now less dense woods with relative quiet, only the light footfalls of the dragon and gentle crackle of its fire giving it away.

The noise of a small explosion rang out in Jaunes ears, and Vulkahns head perked up at the sound, stopping in his tracks and turning to face it. Drawing his sword and shield as he dismounted, Jaune instructed the drake to go and hide in the woods like before. Seeing the fiery reptile slink off into the underbrush, the knight approached quietly, eventually reaching the clearing where the sounds of battle were coming from.

Pyrrha Nikos stood in the center, her spear configured into a rifle, cutting down the horde of Beowulves with impressive precision. He watched as it changed back into a spear, and used as a javelin to impale another grimm. She quickly removed it from the body, and turned it into a pair sword and shield.

Now watching her fight, Jaune realized how well they would work together. She had a ranged and speed advantage, while Jaune brought the firepower, pun intended. Deciding to test this, he leapt into the fray, bringing his sword around in a spin, slicing open the back of a beowulf, and smashing in the back of its head with a punch from his shield. Pyrrha looked to him and nodded briefly, and the two began to work.

* * *

Weiss could not believe her luck. Not only was she stuck with Ruby as her partner of all people, but the only two she really would have like to be with, Jaune and Pyrrha, had both partnered with each other already.

And just to add insult to injury, they were fighting really well together. Pyrrhas obvious speed and agility bonus let her compliment Jaunes power and defense almost perfectly. She watched as the black and gold knight readied his shield for a strike aimed at the champion in front of him, only for her to spin out of the way, letting Jaune block the blow and her to bring it down.

It was so infuriating that the only two people who seemed to be on her level in the school were together, while she was stuck with this immature little girl two years too young to even attend, nevermind be her partner.

The heiresses pristine teeth clenched as she watched the two attack simultaneously, Pyrrha backflip over Jaune to bring her spear through a beowulf's chest while Jaune ducked slightly and delivered a bonecrushing kick with his armored boot, caving in the chest of the final grimm.

Just as she was about to speak, Ruby piped up.

"Hey Weiss?" She said, drawing the attention of all three people, "The forests on fire over here, is that bad?"

 _Rooooarrr!_

"There's also an Ursa Major here!", the sound of two gunshots rang out, followed by an annoyed grunt, drawing an angry hiss from Jaune.

" _Sonofabitch I thought I'd lost it…_ ' He whispered, now looking towards the woods.

"Lost it? Were you fighting it earlier?" Weiss asked, as Ruby ran back into the clearing.

"Yeah. I kinda set the woods on fire a bit."

"A _bit_?" Pyrrha asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh…" He pointedly avoid eye contact with her, prefering to look at the rapidly approaching wildfire and flaming Ursa Major, "Hey, look over there!"

Dodging an errant swipe form the bear, the Schnee countered with a glyph, one that sent the grimm flying back into the fire. This had the unintended effect of knocking down a huge flaming tree, sending it racing toward the ground, the only thing between it and the earth being Weiss, Jaune and Pyrrha, flames trailing from its charred branches.

Jaune acted first, shoving Weiss out of the way of the tree, and holding his shield out over Pyrrha as the tree hit them, protecting her from the branches and flames. These distractions were enough for the Ursa Major to recover and charge at them.

The grimm bear attacked with an uppercut, which Jaune barely avoided, before shielding against a sideswipe from the bear, protecting against its claws, but the force of the blow still sending him flying. He hit the ground and rolled with the momentum, right into a blazing bonfire that was once a bush.

Just as the demon beast turned back to Pyrrha, Jaune charged out of the fire, running and leaping high into the air, the grimm turning around at the noise, and getting only a flying shield bash in return.

"Weiss, Ruby," Jaune got the attention of the pair as the Ursa Major spit out a few broken teeth, "Get out of here, the fire is picking up!"

Looking to make sure they had left, Jaune turned back to his opponent just in time to block a swipe, and retaliate with a stab, punching right through the Ursas wrist. The creature reeled back, screeching in pain, only for Pyrrha to use Jaune as a ramp and put her spear through the forearm of the grimm, pinning it to the ground. Jaune gave a rising strike, crippling its arm, before bringing his sword down and severing it at the elbow.

Now no longer stapled to the ground, the Ursa Major was free to reel back and scream, black smoke pouring from its stump-arm. Before it could make its next move, a gunshot to the knee from Pyrrha flinched it, and an **Orb of Fire** from Jaune splashed against its chest, sending it to the ground.

By now the entire forest seemed to be on fire. Jaune and Pyrrha were in the middle of a scorched wasteland, the earth already black with ash, smoke thick in the air as fires greedily consumed the available vegetation.

"Think that got it?" Jaune asked, as he watched it rise back up from the fires, before huffing in annoyance and preparing another spell.

"Jaune," Pyrrha had already sheathed her weapons and was tugging on his black waistcloth, "There's too much smoke here, we wont be able to fight for much longer, it's already getting hard to breathe!"

Jaune hissed, angry with himself for not thinking of his partner. Of course she would have issues with the fire, she wasn't a pyromancer, and her outfit had a glaring disadvantage against fire. But then again that's what happens when you wear what is effectively half a suit of armor.

"Alright, where do we go?" He said, sheathing his sword and slinging his shield over his back. He followed Pyrrha, who led him toward a hill about a quarter mile away. The two ran through the armageddon, Pyrrha nimbly dodging burning bushes and avoiding flaming branches, while Jaune vaulted over anything in his way, often jumping through walls of fire, the tongues of heat licking his armor as he charged onward.

"In here!" His partner shouted, before ducking into a small cave. Jaune followed, joining her in the darkness. The two stopped to catch their breath before they continued one.

"It's pretty dark in here," Jaune grumbled as his hand was set alight, a ball of roaring flames consuming the end of his arm, illuminating the caves around them, "and cold…"

"Well it's better than the fires right?" Pyrrha shot back, rolling her eyes at Jaunes unenthused ' _no'._ She grabbed a stray branch off the ground, and held it out to him.

"Here, light this," The redhead asked as the flames jumped from Jaune to the makeshift torch in her grasp, "there. Now we can...see…"

Her voice trailed off as she came face to face with a titanic scorpion, a monstrous insectoid grimm known as a Deathstalker. It looked at her, numerous beady red eyes zeroing in with a primal malice. Always competent, she immediately drew her rifle, firing point blank into its face, ducking when Jaune shouted, 'Get Down!' As a large fireball flew over her head, and slammed into the grimm.

"Well that didn't seem to work," He said as the grimm hissed at them, snapping its pincers, "any ideas?"

* * *

 **AN**

 **So there we have it. Jaune's seen some more action, and I explained why I used a Greater Restoration a few chapters back. The way I interpret it, Greater Restoration would just kinda work better on a suit of living armor. Hope that answers your question Kenmandragon.**


	6. Chapter 5: Battles and Plans

**Tad later than I would have liked to get it out (24 hrs late shut up), but I think this 'at least (roughly) 2 weeks for a chapter' is gonna work. Let's find out together!**

* * *

"Chess pieces?"

An odd choice for decorating ancient ruins. But there they were. An incomplete set of chess pieces, half being yellowish, and the other half being white. There was no space for an pawns, and seeing how a few pedestals were empty, Blake and Yang weren't the first to arrive.

"I guess we just take one…" Yang trailed off as she looked over the pieces. Considering how strange the Headmasters methods had been so far, she should probably consider her choice carefully. Each piece might correspond to a team, or a grade, or something else entirely.

But the yellow horse was rather pretty.

Swiftly snatching it off the podium, Yang held the knight piece up in the light, admiring it.

At least it wasn't on fire, like the rest of the forest. Seriously, Blake and Yang had to go around an entire forest fire, and the smoke was still rising into the air some distance behind them.

"How about a nice pony?" She said, her simplistic straightforwardness drawing an eye-roll from her partner. The blonde deposited the piece in a leather bag on her waist, leaving the two to begin making their way to the cliff, only stopping when they heard a faint screaming from high above them.

A tiny figure dressed in red and black was falling from the sky, with clearly no way of slowing down. Yang blinked twice, before accepting that it was her little sister falling from the heavens. This presented Yang with a few issues. The first was that she knew she couldn't baby Ruby. The second was that Ruby was clearly not in a controlled fall, and obviously had no landing strategy besides a faceplant. The third issues, and the one that got Yang to move, was that even if she _did_ have a landing plan, they were in an open field, so she had no way to slow her fall.

Resigning herself to saving her sister, Yang positioned herself under Ruby, arms out and ready to catch her. That was the plan.

At least it was until another figure came flying from off screen and slamming into her, carrying the both of them into a tree.

* * *

"Incoming!" Jaune had shouted as he slammed into the rapidly falling figure of Ruby, diverting her would be head on collision with the ground for a head on collision with a tree. That deathstalker had one hell of a throwing arm, err...throwing tail.

However, he only had a moment to think before he had found his new home in the trees, leading to his current situation.

"Hey Ruby." Jaune said, dangling upside down from one foot.

"Hi Jaune!" She asked, before looking around and turning back to him, "Do you and Pyrrha get away from the Ursa Major?"

"Yeah we did," he said, "ran into a big scorpion though."

"Ruby!" Yangs shouting could be heard in the distance.

"Coming Yang!" Her sister shouted back, quickly dropping to the ground and speeding off.

"Hey wait!" Jaune said, "I'm a little stuck here!" He waved around, trying to get the attention of...well anyone really. He would have just cut himself free, but a headfirst drop from fifteen feet up was something he generally wanted to avoid.

The thought for a moment before he decided to take matters into his own hands. Jaune curled up, grabbing the branch his foot was stuck in, drawing his sword, and hacking it off, leaving him to hang on the branch while freeing himself. He swung and released, landing on a particularly thick tree limb.

"Hmmm?" He said to himself, hearing a faint screaming coming from the sky.

* * *

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked, to which Yang just nodded. A rustling from the woods disturbed their thoughts, and the pair only had to wait a moment before an Ursa burst out, followed by a pink explosion and crackle of lightning, and fell over. As it collapsed, a girl with orange hair was thrown forward, landing in a roll and spring on her feet. While she was nudging the dead bear with her foot and complaining that it 'was broken', a younger, obviously more composed individual dropped off the grimms back.

"Nora," the young man panted, his green tunic and black hair slightly ruffled, "please don't do that ever again."

But alas, Nora had already discovered the white rook piece, and had already prepared a celebratory dance and song, or so it seemed when she burst into a sing-song of "I'm queen of the castle!", dancing around and posing with the rook.

"Nora!" Came the black haired man, who had caught his breath and was making his way to the ruins. At his voice, Nora froze mid lyric, the white piece balanced on her head, and bounced over to her partner.

"Coming Ren!"

Sensing that both she and her partner were getting tired of this string of chaos, Yang decided to shout for her sister, swiftly receiving response from the woods she had flown into. Shortly after, Ruby came zipping out of the treeline, and jumping into her sisters arms.

"Are you okay?"

"Jeez, I'm fine," Ruby said, feeling a little embarrassed at the motherly tone Yang was using.

Looking next to her big sister, Ruby saw Blake, looking a her with an indifferent, detached expression. She waved to her.  
"Hi Blake."  
Blake nodded. "Hey."  
"So," Ruby said, hoping against all hope, "are two of you are partners?"  
"Damm straight!" Yang answered "Partnered up and punched our way through the forest!"

Sounds like Yang so far.  
"Congratulations…" Yang forced herself to ignore the heart wrenchingly dejected tone she used.

"Ruby, where's your partner? You do have a partner, don't you?"  
"Of course I've got a-"

"Is it Jaune?"  
"No..." She trailed off, "He's with Pyrrha."  
Yang cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. "Ruby, who is your partner?"  
"Weiss," Ruby mumbled, hoping no one would hear her.  
"Weiss Schnee?" Blake said.  
Ruby and Yang turned to Blake, and watched her face flash from angry to calm and emotionless in an instant. It was only a second, but that momentary break in character showed what she really thought about the heiress

"Well where is she? Did you manage to lose her?"  
"Yes! I mean no!...well, I didn't, like, _try_ to lose her"  
"Easy there Rubes, just kidding around." There was a slight pause, "You didn't go _looking_ for Weiss right?"  
"I didn't choose her at all. I just… sort of almost crashed into her...again." Ruby almost snapped, trying to clarify. "I was running along, thinking about partners and stuff, when I jumped a bush and she was just standing there. I stopped, and she just walked away."  
"She left you to make your way here all by yourself?"

"No, I caught up to her eventually, and I tried to give this whole speech about how I'd be a good partner." She said, tripping over her words a bit.  
"What happened next?" Yang asked.  
"Then we found Jaune and Pyrrha-well _Weiss_ found Jaune and Pyrrha _,_ "  
She said, thinking back for a moment, "and then the forest was on fire, and there was an Ursa Major, Weiss threw it threw into a tree, and Jaune told us to leave."  
"Reckless." Blake said.

"Awesome." Yang corrected.  
"Worse!" Ruby corrected again.  
"And that's when you ditched her."  
"No, that's when we got lost. Seriously, it's like she's never even been outside before!" At this Ruby audibly huffed, "And I told her to jump a while ago."

"Jump?"  
The red haired sister looked up, and pointed at the huge black shadow high in the sky, a small white blob seemingly attached to it.

"Is that a?"  
"Nevermore." Ruby finished.  
"And hanging off the back?

"Weiss."  
Yang stared for a moment. "Well look at that…"  
From high above, an anger and fear riddled voice came, "How could you leave me?"

"I said 'jump!'" Ruby yelled back, not seeming to realize she couldn't hear her.  
"Aww..." Yang said with a mischievous glimmer in her eyes, "see? She misses you!"  
Ruby crossed her arms in front of her and frowned. "Yang..."  
"She's gonna fall." said Blake, as one of the heiresses arms came loose.

"She'll be fine," Ruby said, not even looking up.  
"And, she's falling," Blake replied.

* * *

Jaune was impressed at how far the Deathstalker, as Pyrrha referred to it, had actually managed to throw him. Trying to use his head for once and fight smart, Jaune decided to try and remove its stinger, and had jumped onto its tail to cut it off. He got off one good slash before it whipped its tail. Not prepared at all for the sudden motion, Jaune went flying out of the cave, across the field, into Ruby, and into the trees on the other side.

He'd gotten himself out of a tangle of branches, and was now running through the treetops, jumping from branch to branch as he raced above the ground. He had just nearly reached the clearing when he heard a faint screaming, a panicked, piercing yell from high above. He looked, catching a glimpse of a figure dressed on white plummeting toward the ground, not showing any signs of slowing down.

' _Weiss_ ', Jaune thought, before deciding his next course of action.

* * *

' _So this is it?'_ Weiss thought as the ground raced increasingly close to her, ' _This is how I die? I get thrown off a nevermore during initiation, because my idiot of a partner decided it was a good idea to climb up on the damn thing._

Despite still screaming in abject terror, she had resigned herself to dying here somewhat, making what happened next all the more pleasing.

Something hit her, painfully, knocking the wind out of her lungs and being sure to leave a bruise, turning her vertical drop into a sharp diagonal angle to the ground, she caught a glimpse of black and gold before her movement stopped, and a pair of black metal sabatons slammed into the ground, diggin rents into the earth as they tried to stop their owner.

As jarring as the last five seconds had been, Weiss would take it over fatal impact any day of the week. Her eyes refocused, and her grip relaxed, her hands unclenching from the black and gold cloth they were clutching, instead putting one on each shoulder of whoever had caught her, propping herself up slightly.

"Good job Jaune!" Came the loud, boisterous voice of Yang, "Nice catch!"

"Hmmph…" Jaune huffed, before looking down at Weiss, "Are you alright?" He said, genuine concern in his voice, his bright, golden eyes only a few inches from hers.

"Y-yes, I'm alright," Weiss said, looking away, a pinkish tinge spreading across her face, "Thank you."

"Sorry about ramming into you like that," He said, walking back over to the students that had gathered, "Not the most gentle of catches, but I assumed you'd prefer it to...well, you know."

"No, it's fine, I'm pretty sure you saved me." Weiss said, looking around at everyone, fidgeting slightly, adjusting her positioning to one more comfortable, sinking into the situation as the knight carried her bridal style across the clearing.

"Weiss!" Came the overeager voice of Ruby, causing her to roller her eyes, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine you dolt, no thanks to you!" Weiss snapped back, still being held by Jaune, "That was such as stupid idea Ruby, I can't believe it actually worked."

"Oh, hey Jaune!" Ruby said, trying to ignore the fact he literally had her partner in his arms, "Where's Pyrrha?"

As if on que, both the deathstalker and Pyrrha burst out of the woods, the latter having been flung out of them, and the former charging out, its massive arachnid frame toppling trees like child's toys. She landed face first a foot from the stone pedestals, and quickly picked herself up.

"Hey Pyrrha," Jaune said as she brushed some dirt off off her chest piece, "Just dropping in?"

"Hey Jaune!" She said, before glaring at Weiss, "Put her down."

Muttering an apology to the heiress, Jaune released her, the white haired Schnee taking the opportunity to pointed stand away from her partner, instead standing at Jaunes right side while Pyrrha took his left.

"Oh great the gang's all here!" Yang snarked, as the deathstalker charged "Now we can all die together!"

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby cried, raising her scythe and charging the scorpion, an adorable and childish battle cry accompanying her, much to the distress of her sister. In a flutter of rose petals, Ruby reached the grim, preparing to strike, before a large claw swiped her back.

"D-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!" Ruby stammered, hastily firing a few times before sheathing her scythe and retreating. One her way, the nevermore she'd hitched a ride from apparently tired of circling, and let loose a loud, booming cry, before flapping its wings, sending a hail of razor feathers down to the ground. In a stroke of luck, all but one missed Ruby, the outlying feather catching the tip of her cloak, stapling it into the ground.

"Ruby!" Jaune shouted, starting a dead sprint to the red haired girl as the deathstalker closed in, "Get out of there!"

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" She yelled back, tugging on the cloak that was keeping her in place, the grimm drawing ever closer, claws snapping in anticipation, now mere feet from the girl. The claw reached toward her, as Ruby backed away, straining against her cape, as the point of the razor tipped claw suddenly snapped back with a flash of heat and the smell of smoke.

As the scorpion recoiled, screeching in pain, Jaune thrusted his sword, giving a noise of almost disappointment when the point was deflected, only carving a slight groove in the bone white carapace. Seeing his strike having little effect, Jaune followed up with that shield punch he seemed to love so much, the point of the heater shield impacting the grimm.

Across the field, Pyrrha gulped a little as the strike slammed into the titanic deathstalker, producing a spider web of lines across its face plates. The champion had just realized how powerful Jaune really was, and she found herself glad that they were partners, decreasing the chance they'd be fighting each other in class. Anyone who could punch hard enough to make a full grown deathstalker flinch was not someone she wanted to test her luck against.

Even Yang seemed to catch on, actually wincing when the sharp cracking noise reached her ears. But despite Jaunes impressive strength, the scorpion survived and attacked quickly, the whiplike tail coming down to impale Ruby, suddenly stopping just inches from her face in a flash of white.

"You are so childish!"  
Ruby opened her eyes to see the stinger and lower half of the deathstalker stuck in a block of ice, and her equally frosty savior standing over her, arms crossed.

"Weiss...?"

"And dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style. And I suppose I can be a bit... difficult... but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together." Weiss said as she wrenched her rapier out of the ice, "So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be... nicer."

"I'm not trying to show off." She responded, "I want you to know I can do this."  
"You're fine." The heiress harrumphed

Ruby stopped, and waited until she caught her breath before she continued, "Normal knees…" She stands up, her eyes snapping to the deathstalker frozen in ice, "Woah." She said, giving a short thanks to Jaune as he drew his sword and cut the upper four fifths of the feather away, letting him pull out the root easily, freeing Ruby.

"So happy you're okay!" The sisterly reunion being broken up shortly after by another loud cry from the grimm high above. As before, the grimm cry heralded another barrage of razor feathers, the treelike black projectiles bearing down towards the humans below.

Moving with conviction, Jaune grabbed Weiss by the wrist and yanked her out of the way of a feather, one that would have speared her through the waist a second later. He half pulled, half threw her behind him, and she hit the ground next to Ruby, letting Jaune protect all three of the. at once with his shield.

And a good idea that was, seeing how the single feather that hit the shield actually managed to pierce it, reaching a scarce few inches through the metal, leaving a hole about an inch in diameter.

" _Motherfucker_ …" The knight hissed, looking at the ten foot feather stuck in his shield, an expression of relief coloring his features when Yang offered him a hand. She grabbed the feather with both of them, bracing her foot on his shield, and pulled, easily freeing the feather from the hunk of metal.

"Wow," The gold haired boxer said, looking closer at his choice of arms, "Hell of a shield." She then looked to the deathstalker frozen in ice, specifically the crater in its head where Jaune had socked it.

"Nice punch."

"Thanks." He said, grimacing at the hole in his shield, as Yang helped her sister up to the sound of a other caw.

"Hey guys?" Jaune said, glaring daggers at the nevermore who's feather put a little hole in his shield, "It's circling back!"

"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us."Weiss motions to the relic chess pieces.

"My partner's right." Said Ruby, choosing her words very carefully, "Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs." She nodded to Weiss, "There's no point in fighting these things."

"Tactical retreat?" Jaune said, sounding almost disappointed, receiving a confused look from Ruby, "It's like running away, but less embarrassing." At that he received a smirk from Yang and an arched eyebrow from Weiss.

Ruby, Weiss, Jaune and Yang ran back over to the ruins, Ruby grabbing a golden knight piece, and Jaune grabbing a golden rook.

"Time we left!" Ren said, keeping an eye on the treeline for more grimm.

"Alright," Jaune said, sheathing his sword, "Let's move!" He shouted, everyone falling in behind him, Pyrrha taking a place next to him, giving him a nod and a smile, which he returned before facing forward.

* * *

"Headmaster," Glynda said, catching Ozpin's attention, "The forest is notably more on fire than it was a few minutes ago."

"Hmm…" He replied, taking a long sip of his coffee.

"Sir?"

* * *

' _This gods damned ursa major!'_ Jaune swore under his breath as the battered and burned grimm bear that had been plaguing him the entire initiation charged out of the woods and swiped him off course, the stump of its arm flailing about and a few initiates shouting.

But he stood his ground, even though both his sword and shield had been knocked from his grasp, opting to brawl Yang style, going toe to toe with the grimm, pitting the two in a contest of raw strength alone. While the grimm would surely win all out, Jaune was an experienced fighter, and dodged under a wild swipe, countering with a straight punch to the left knee, splintering it, before following up with a hook to the kidneys and a backflip, sending demon bear teeth everywhere with the heel of his metal boot.

Three succinct gunshots rang out, each hitting the Ursa Major in the back of the head, forcing its attention to Pyrrha, the once responsible. Using his partners distraction, Jaune took the time he'd been given to retrieve his sword and shield from the ground. He turned back around at the sound of a fourth gunshot and the roar of a grimm to see Pyrrha rolling over its shoulder, coming to a stop next to him. She turned to her partner, and nodded, smiling a little to herself when he returned the nod.

But the deathstalker, having broken out of its icy prison some time ago, had other ideas. The two barely dodged a downward strike from its pincer, diving to the left and right. Of course now the nevermore decided to get involved again, a third hail of feathers stopping the rest of the group from reaching Jaune and Pyrrha.

Now the four were eye each other, Jaune and Pyrrha backed together, the Ursa eyeing Pyrrha, and the deathstalker gazing at Jaune, clearly angry about denting its face. Jaune looked over his shoulder at Pyrrha for a moment before speaking.

"Pyrrha," He said, his voice leaving no room for questioning, "When I whistle, duck."

He then grabbed his sword with his shield hand, and gave the sharpest, loudest whistle Pyrrha had ever heard. Following his directions, she got down, and hit the deck as a black, red and orange mass soared over her, and landed on the deathstalker.

"Keep him busy Vulkahn!" Jaune instructed, as the magma drake began tearing into the grimm, molten white claws and fangs digging into its hard shell.

"What the hell is that?" Pyrrha said, turning her rifle to point at Vulkahn, before Jaune moved the barrel away, grabbing and pulling it both away from Vulkahn, and pulling her out of the way of the grimm, his shield taking the strike.

"Vulkahn'll keep it busy!" Jaune answered, taking his sword back into his sword hand, "Right now we've got to take down this Ursa Major."

* * *

"What in Monty's name is that?" Glynda whispered to herself, looking at the...thing that had jumped onto the Deathstalker. It almost looked like a fusion of a wolf and a crocodile in its form, with four reptilian legs and toothy jaws, a long, rigid and stiff tail protruding from its backside. It certainly moved like a wolf, jumping around the scorpion, clawing and biting, a line of flame running down its back.

"It's certainly no grimm," Ozpin responded, now looking through the same camera as his assistant, "or at least, no grimm I've ever seen."

"Whatever it is, we'll need to take care of it," Goodwitch replied, "it's 15 feet long and more than a match for a full grown deathstalker." She said as it's maw opened and a jet of burning magma was blasted onto the grimm, its charred and cracked shell now smoking and on fire, the molten material melting through its carapace.

"Perhaps," Her boss said, taking a sip from his mug of coffee, "but we need to wait until the initiation ends at least."

"Right now, I'm more curious about our little mystery, Jaune Arc." He said, as he motioned to Pyrrha, who used his shield like a springboard, launching her over the Ursa Major, landing in the field of spines that made up its back.

"I...I suppose." Glynda said, sighing, tearing her focus away from the fiery lizard wolf thing, "Given that talk we had with Qrow last night, we really should keep an eye on him."

* * *

"You lost a bullhead?" Ironwood shouted at Qrow, who was trying to find an excuse at the bottom of his flask. He'd flown in, waking up both Ozpin and Glynda at 2:30 in the morning with 'Serious News', prompting a call to Atlas.

"It was that or I lose my head!" He shouted back, pointing at the general.

"Qrow," Ozpin sighed, "Just...start from the beginning."

"Fine fine," he grumbled, putting his flask back into his jacket, "I'll start from the beginning."

"So." He cleared his throat. "A few hours ago, I was checking up on Raven."

"You don't normally do that."

"Yes." He admitted. "But the real lack of activity from her and the White Fang was starting to get to me. So I fly up, real close, and she's talking to someone. They're discussing some new deal, with her tribe giving intelligence and information, and this other group building some sort of base."

"Any idea who this other group is?" Glynda asked, ready to take notes on her scroll.

"No," he said, whipping out his scroll and booting it up, "I've got an ID on the person there, name's Morrigan, says she's a 'Nevermore'"

"A Nevermore? Ozpin, mind sending that to me?" James said through the video screen. After sending it, Ozpin passed it over to Glynda, who looked almost...jealous.

"What the-are those wings?" James half shouted, half asked, looking at the shot of Morrigan, black raven wings spread and glowing contrails trailing from her blood red eyes glaring right into the camera as she raced after the bullhead. The only thing really unsettling was the fact there were the few holes in her left cheek and jaw, letting the photo capture the image of her white fangs.

"Yep, and she's damn fast with them too." Qrow said, standing up and stretching, "Good with a sword, and took a shot to the face and a shot to the neck like to was nothing."

"Could you beat her?" Ironwood asked, unintentionally whistling a little as he took another look at Morrigan.

"...maybe."

"Qrow you're not exactly filling us with confidence right now."

"Yeah." He said taking out his flask, "I thought I could. No aura, heavy armor, no obvious semblance, seemed like a piece of cake. Then she smacked me around a tad, but I thought I'd got her when she took a hit to the face, and right after I decided to get the hell out of dodge."

"And well," he took a hearty swig from his flask, "That was when her zombie raven grew eight times its size and started tearing the bullhead a new one."

"...I'm sorry, a what?" Ironwood repeated.

* * *

"Hell of a jump Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted, having just springboarded his partner onto the Ursa Majors back. With Vulkahn keeping the desthstalker occupied, he only had to focus on the Ursa Major Pyrrha had mounted, sending it into a frenzy, the giant grimm bear roaring and swiping madly, trying in vain to knock her off.

"Hey!" The knight shouted, drawing its attention, causing it to stop thrashing ss much, letting Pyrrha stand up on its shoulders, her spear reconfiguring into a rifle. The grimm had just opened its mouth to lunge, when everything snapped back into high gear.

"Now!" He yelled, and on command Pyrrha emptied her magazine, half a dozen dust bullets drilling into the thick bone plate on the back of its skull, forcing it to snap its head down. Then Jaune moved, caving its right knee in with a punch from his shield hand, and following it up with a stab upwards. The tip of his blade riposted straight through its skull, punching out the top of its bony head with a satisfying crunch.

Wrenching the sword free, Jaune brought it around, the edge of his steel meeting the sliver of exposed, unarmored fur between its plated head and spined back and shoulders. The bite of Aurum Mors sung true, flowing into the grimm flesh like a hot knife into butter, the head of the beast following shortly after, the dull thud of the Ursa Major head hitting the ground overshadowed by Pyrrha rolling off its back as its body dropped to the floor.

They were about to compliment each other on their competence, when Vulkahn yelped and flew in between them, the deathstalker having gotten lucky and grabbed then thrown the magma drake.

"Shit," Jaune hissed, as Vulkahn picked himself back up and shook like a dog, sending bits of dirt and molten slag flying off him, "any ideas?"

"Not right now," Pyrrha said, her rifle transforming back into a spear, "It's armor is to tough for us, and we don't have anything that can punch through it."

"Punch through it…" Jaune muttered to himself, inwardly gigling when Pyrrha huffed at his admittedly straightforward and blunt thinking.

"I've got a plan," He said, as the deathstalker slammed its claws down and hissed, approaching slowly, "when I say so, I need you to hit my shield as hard as you can, got it?"

"I-um, sure," The mistralian said, bringing her focus back to the task at hand, "tell me when."

"Nice. Vulkahn, go for the tail!" He shouted, grabbing the drake by the horns as he leapt back toward the grimm. Vulkahn's jump carried him above the grimm, right toward its tail, which the drake grabbed onto, clawed, scaly paws wrapped around the scorpion's tail, white hot talons digging into the bone.

It was then that Jaune dropped, let go of Vulkahn, and reared his shield hand back for a punch. It connected, the force and momentum putting his shield arm through the charred bone plating up to the wrist.

"Now!" He shouted at Pyrrha, who used the understandable distraction to jump onto its back. Continuing in the same motion, she vaulted high into the air again, and brought both her feet down in a kick, driving the shield arm further into the grimm, now up to Jaunes elbow.

Acting swiftly, Jaune used his pyromancy, his arm and hand heating up, smoke wafting from the grimms armor, until it released, folding its body with raging flames, incinerating its organs and blackening its armor, fire blazing out of its eyes, its mouth, the scars in its back and even the joints in its tail, an ear piercing shriek of terror, pain and mindless fear reaching the ears of the remaining initiates, who had been forced to engage both another horde of grimm and the nevermore.

Eventually the roaring flames died down, and smoke began pouring from its corpse when Jaune removed his arm, dust and charr falling off his body. He paused, catching his breath, waiting for his gauntlet to cool down, Pyrrha watching as the metal when from white hot to orange, then red, and finally dark greyish black. He looked to his partner, and motioned for a high five, which she reciprocated, looking happy with herself and him, at least until she looked at her hand, specifically the fine layer of soot coating it.

"Oh crap, sorry about that Pyrrha," He apologized, " _I'm gonna have to clean that later…"_ He muttered as he unceremoniously wiped a good amount of it off on his waistcloth.

"Don't worry about it Jaune," she laughed, putting a smile back on his face, "everything's on fire, I'm sure this won't be the end of me."

Jaune looked around. The trees were ablaze, the sky clouded with ash, grimm all around them, the forest fire he'd accidentally started had obviously grown out of control. In the distance he could see a couple bullheads spraying liberal amounts of water, trying to combat the blaze as best they could.

"I really need to work on getting that under control…" Jaune said, as Pyrrha laughed again.

A growl sounded, and a beowulf received a flash of steel and complimentary decapitation for approaching. The second one found its demise in the jaws of Vulkahn, who shook it like a dog with a toy, the force sending a limb or two flying off.

"We need to get back to the group," Pyrrha said, as more grimm crawled out of the treeline, "We're not in a good position."

"Yeah, I was thinking that too," Of course, the Darkrusader in Jaune wanted to stand his ground and let them come, to 'Fall by my sword heathens, and taste thine steel of vengeance!', as his brothers would say, "we should go. How do you feel about fire?"

"What do you mean...uhhh…" She trailed off, as Jaune climbed atop Vulkahn, and offered a hand to her, the magma drake eyeing her with a reasonable amount of suspicion, then rumbling in contentment when she took his hand.

"Lets go!"

* * *

"Thank you, Sir Taurus," Zalthar said as he began to wrap up his conversation with the White Fang leader, "That would be a suitable location for our portal."

"Appreciated." The bull faunus said, trying to act natural, something which was becoming increasingly difficult with the increasing amounts of walking skeletons and rotting corpses milling about. While Adam couldn't deny the astounding and robotic efficiency of Acereraks workers, he still couldn't deny the fact that they, to put it mildly, 'creeped him the fuck out.'

And judging by the expressions of the grunts in the warehouses, he was not alone in that sentiment.

Oddly enough, the White Fang R&D people had not only become either desensitized or comfortable with them, but had actually gotten along incredibly well, acting as friends and close comrades during their research together.

Most notably Rufus Hog, an impressively competent mechanical engineer, who had become very close friends with Vilfred, a six foot skeleton tinkerer from a subterranean city called 'Carthus', apparently located beneath a great desert. The two were reportedly inseparable, with Vilfred even being invited to Hog's wedding a week or two ago, the two taking a boat to Menagerie for the ceremony and party.

While thankfully all of the people in attendance were either in or supported the White Fang (allowing Acererak and his people to remain hidden for the time), Adam would have payed to see the looks on the crowds faces when a bleach white skeleton in a well tailored suit took a seat with the groomsmen. Aside from scaring the ever loving hell out of all in attendance, it was actually the final nail in the coffin for their alliance, the gesture of real friendship and camaraderie represented by a skeleton at a wedding being enough to convince Sienna Kahn to fully commit to their alliance.

"Hate to break up the goodwill flowing here," Roman said, breaking up the goodwill flowing there, "but I'm kinda curious, what now?"

"Could you elaborate Sir Torchwick?" The vampire asked, black robes shifting with him.

"Well," Roman thought about his question for a moment, "what do we do now? You guys have gotten bases in three continents and two major kingdoms. You've gotten yourselves set up, so what are you going to do next?"

"I suppose there's no harm in telling you a tad early," Zalthar admitted, as the two reached the 'main' room in the warehouse, "the next phase of the plan-"

"Is to save Menagerie." Came the booming voice of Acererak, his ten foot form appearing from the swirling green vortex in the center of the room, which howled and slowly dissipated into thin air.

"If I didn't know you better I'd say you're planning a genocide." Adam said, unintentionally letting some steel into his voice. And why wouldn't he? Unintentional as it may have been, what he said could be taken as an insult with minimal effort.

"I am." He said, chuckling and striding to the window, placing his massive gauntleted hands on the sill, "As beautiful as your continent is, it is in danger."

"How so?" Adam asked, already able to predict the lichs answer.

"Your root problem is lack of recognition." Acererak began, still gazing out the window. "None of the kingdoms officially recognize Menageries as one of them, meaning our people don't exist in the eyes of politics."

" _...our…_ " Adam whispered to himself, emotion creeping into his voice. Just as Vilfred attending Rufus Hog's wedding fully convinced Sienna, this unintentional wording of Acererak was what finally fully convinced Adam.

"This lack of recognition is what stops aid programs from assisting, what stops official and profession huntsmen and women from helping with grimm." The lich said, Adam growling at the truth behind his words. "The grimm that are consistently and unceasingly taking the continent back. The kingdoms do not help you, in some cases because they cannot help you without writing it off as foreign aid, because you don't technically exist."

"You know I never actually thought of it that way," Torchwick said, Neo walking up to him and nodding in agreement, "I just sorta wrote it off as racism."

"That is certainly a factor, I will admit that Roman," The ten foot behemoth replied, "but the primary reason the Kingdoms refuse to recognize Menagerie is money. Foreign aid is expensive, but setting up the infrastructure and political installations to create a new kingdom is even more so."

"Simply put, the Kingdoms don't provide aid and supplies to Menagerie because the leaders would have to mark it as a personal business venture," Zalthar cut in at his unvocalized cue, "They would have to take money out of their own pockets to assist.

"Something they'd never do…" Adam finished, resolve hardening.

"Yes. But back to the topic of genocide," Acererak said, his words causing Roman to involuntarily gulp and send a shiver down Adams spine, "that is my next plan for Menagerie."

"They will fall by the sword, and taste the steel bite of vengeance." Said Morrigan, striding out of the dark and standing next to her Lord.

"A genocide of Grimm."

* * *

 **And there we are! A nice sized chapter, roughly two weeks, more action, drama, bad writing and stalling. Odds are I'll be wrapping up the initiation next chapter, so keep your eyes out for that.**


	7. Chapter 6: The First Assault

**Lmao sorry about dying for a bit, exams and winter break kinda wrecked my shit, AND I didn't even have internet for like half of the last two weeks. But now I think I'm back on the 2-ish weeks for a chapter.**

 **Also I've been playing smash ultimate. (Ridley main, cause fuck tierlists, I'm maining my space dragon boi).**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"HAHAHA!" Jaune cackled, the roar and blasts of fire consuming the hordes of grimm before him, "COME, COME AND FACE YOUR DOOM!"

"Wow," Yang said, stopping and watching Jaune, who was standing at the edge of the bridge, sword and shield away, and two huge columns of seething fire blasting out of his palms, "He's really into this…"

"He might be, _too_ into this…" Blake said, as Jaune let out another wild laugh at the sight of half a dozen beowulf's being burnt to cinders.

"Nah," Yang dismissed, giving a wave of her hand, "He just likes killing grimm, nothing wrong with that?"

"I WILL BLACKEN THE SKIES WITH YOUR CINDERS!" He shouted, focusing down and Ursa and turning it to ash in an instant, "NOW BURN!"

"Okay…" Yang said, as Pyrrha looked over to her partner with a hint of concern on her face, "Maybe he is a little too into it…"

They watched as a beowulf slipped through the flaming onslaught, its lithe form dodging the two pillars of fire that consumed its allies. It was about three feet from Jaune when he shut off the fire and stood to face it.

Just like after his execution of the deathstalker, his metal gauntlets were currently white hot, and steaming even in the warm, late summer air. The grimm growled, then charged, only receiving a boot to the knee, fully smashing the leg inward at the joint, reversing it.

Then before it even had time to howl in pain, Jaune grabbed it by the throat, the white hot gauntlet steaming, hissing, smoking and popping as it scorched the grimm. He hefted it with his right hand, up over his head, and down behind him, putting a beowulf shaped imprint in the ground. Quickly putting it down, Jaune removed his hands from the burned mess that was once its neck, and stomped, his sabaton crushing its head with ease.

"I think I'm in love…" Yang pretended to swoon, a smile on her face when Blake caught her as she faked a faint. Once Blake had forced her back onto her feet, Jaune called to them.

"Hows that nevermore going!" He yelled, a wild grin on his face, sparks and smoke flying from his hair, golden eyes glowing like molten metal. During his sentence the nevermore in question attacked with a hail of feathers, having spent the latter part of the last few minutes just circling, unable to get close enough to attack with both the artillery barrage from Nora and Jaunes fire.

Two feathers streaked past Jaune, thudding into the ground. He neutralized the third one with a two handed blast of fire, incinerating it in midair, only a line of ash and soot hitting him in the face remaining.

"Ugh…" Weiss said, the pristine heiress in her grimacing at the soot and ash that now covered Jaunes face and hair, making him look like a chimney sweep. He wiped some of it off with his hand, swiping it on the ground and leaving a streak of black on the grass before drawing his sword and shield as the grimm prepared another charge.

"Anyone have a plan?" Blake shouted, as Pyrrha and Jaune decapitated a grimm in sync. The gold and black knight turned to her, and spoke.

"Sort of," He looked over the horde, seeing Vulkahn ripping through the masses of black and white with reckless abandon and animalistic savagery, "I'll need your crew to take care of the nevermore."

At this, Yang leapt off the stone structure, using her gauntlet shots to boost herself through the air, and colliding with the beak of the nevermore sailing past. He pried its mouth open, and began force feeding the grimm its daily dose of hot lead.

"Ren, Nora, Pyrrha!" Jaune called, motioning them back, "Get over the bridge!"

"What about Vulkahn?" Pyrrha asked, having grown a little attached to the magma drake in the time she'd gotten to ride him.

"Don't worry about him," He answered, seeing that everyone was on the other side of the bridge, and the grimm had began to come over, "Nora!"

"That's my name!" She bubbled, loading another set of pink grenades into her launcher. "Whatcha need?"

"Can you blow the bridge?" He said, grinning as an ecstatic smile spread across the girls face.

"Yessire!" She shouted, transforming her launcher into a hammer and slamming it down onto the brickwork. She then fired it, sending pink smoke and explosions into the air with each blast. With only a few shots, the crumbling ruins crumbled their last, falling into the abyss below, taking the hordes of darkness with them.

"What now?" Nora asked expectantly, hoping to explode some more things.

"Now?" Jaune looked over to where the others were fighting the nevermore, "We wait."

* * *

" _What the hell are we waiting for_?" A white fang grunt whispered into his radio, watching carefully as a lone beowulf slinked through the trees. He'd been tracking it for a few hours now, and the lack of actions was starting to rub him the wrong way.

" _We need to see where it's going,"_ Came the voice of Zalthar back through the radio, " _This might be the only lead we get, the reports of grimm massing in this forest have skyrocketed since Acererak drove off Cinder._ "

" _Yeah, I was there,_ " The white fang member responded, getting up to stealthily follow the beowulf through the trees, seeing how it had picked up its pace a little, " _Drove off is underselling it a little…_ "

" _I would agree, but Lord Acererak refers to his dismantling of them as such, so I will follow suit._ "

" _Whatever floats your boat buddy, it's just that...wait,"_ He looked at the beowulf, which had stopped in front of the entrance to a cave, looked around for a moment, before going in, " _it just went into this cave."_

" _Do not follow it, we have no idea what else could be in there."_

" _Yeah wasn't planning on it…_ " The Grunt said, getting ready to make a call, " _Adam, they're here. Acererak was right."_

* * *

"Do you really think this is going to work?" Yang shouted as Jaune dug his heels further into the stone.

"Yeah!" He yelled back, muscles straining as he pulled the elastic ribbon back further, "Why wouldn't it?"

After Weiss had pinned the nevermore to the cliff, Ruby and Blake had worked together to cook up a makeshift slingshot of sorts, and while Weiss was readying her glyphs to give Ruby a boost of speed, Jaune was trying to hold the band in place, so it wouldn't send Ruby flying prematurely.

"Jaune!" Weiss shouted, her runic glyphs now read to fire, "Let go!"

With a satisfying _twang,_ the band snapped forward, whipping Ruby towards the cliff like a slingshot. She landed on one of the glyphs already on the far side. With her scythe now hooked around the neck of the nevermore, the glyphs activated, propelling her up the cliff at mind boggling speeds, dragging the grimm with her.

The force of the glyphs, the speed of Ruby, and the force of momentum that was transferred to the blade of Crescent Rose, was then to the neck of the nevermore, decapitating it. The body fell to the ground, black smoke pouring from its mangled neck, as Ruby stood atop the cliff, a flurry of rose petals dancing around her.

"Wow." Was all Jaune could say, as silence permeated the air. He looked around, seeing everybody pretty much agreeing with him.

"Now I don't mean, to by _that_ guy…" He said, realizing it was up to him to snap everybody out of their stupor, "but we've got to get up that cliff. Any ideas?"

"I have an Idea!" Nora shouted, blasting herself across with her grenade hammer, "Race you to the top!"

Soon, everyone was making their way up the cliff, leaving Jaune alone with Vulkahn and Pyrrha at the bottom. Vulkahn walked up to him, a snort and huff of blistering heat rustling his golden blonde hair. Turning to face the magma drake, he received a lick, the dragons large, glowing orange tongue wiping a bunch of soot off his face, bringing a laugh out of Pyrrha.

Scratching underneath Vulkahns chin, Jaune rolled his eyes and hopped on his back, grabbing by the arm and swinging his partner up behind him, the spinal flames going out entirely where she sat, the heat receding from his skin as the far less temperature resistant human mounted him, scales cooling and losing their glow.

"Alright!" Jaune shouted, spurring Vulkahn into action, "Lets go!"

With a single leap, the drake cleared the chasm, claws digging into the stone, as he pulled him and his riders up the cliff, quickly making his way to the top.

* * *

The sound of another grimm being split in two was music to Adams ears. He readied his blade, and tore into the hordes of darkness before him, separating heads from shoulders, arms from bodies, and legs from torsos with every strike.

The sounds of gunfire mixed with melee as White Fang grunts gave ranged support to Acereraks forces. Again, the brutal efficiency of the undead was showing, their seamless cooperation evident in their unbreaking line of advance into the village. Each zombie was dressed in a combination of tough leather and rough forged iron plate, uniform and utilitarian. Their heads were unprotected, showing dried skin pulled taut over bleached bone, hideously jagged and cracked teeth, wicked gashies and cracks, and an omnipresent faint green glow that emanated from deep inside their corpses.

Each carried a halberd, arming sword, and shield, all of which were used with deadly efficiency. Each strike was measured, calculated, and exact. With every soldier literally incapable of feeling fear, they had become the perfect fightings force.

Adams stomach churned slightly as he watched an Ursa tear swip a zombie in half, before being brought down by three swords through the chest and a downward strike from a halberd into its head.

Instead of scream in pain, writhe around and die, the bisected soldier continued, dragging itself across the ground with its arms, drawing unceasingly closer to the lines of grimm that had overrun the village.

A ghastly, haunting moan echoed across the line of dead, as unbreaking as their wills, each second drawing closer to victory.

From just behind Adam came a blast of chilling air and rushing wind, and in an instant, the grimm right before him were dead. Each grimm frozen in place, encased in mocking cocoons of black ice, wicked points trailing behind as it froze them solid. Footsteps boomed in Adams head as Acererak strode forward, black snow trailing from his cape and pitch colored ice spreading from beneath his metal boots as the next grimm horde, a pack of ten Ursa, reached him.  
A single one handed swing tore right through the first grimm, bisecting it diagonally from waist to shoulder with a fleshy squelch and a pained howl as it fell to the ground. The lich stepped forward again, swinging his sword over his head and then in a wide horizontal sweep from left to right that cleaved two more in half at the midriff and buried itself 3/4 of the way into a third. Stepping forward, Acererak rammed his shoulder into the grimm bears chest, caving it in as he gripped the blade of his sword halfway down with his gloved right hand. The shoulder bash knocked the ursa off of his sword, and he swung the weapon in a backhanded murder stroke, putting a hole in the grimms skull with the spike of a quillon.  
As the others approached him, Acererak switched to a two handed grip, a faint ethereal glow emanated from the blade as he charged forward to meet him. He bisected a grimm with a vertical swipe, splitting it from head to the unmentionables, then stepped forward to split another one in half from the unmentionables to the head. Leaving the four ursa halves on the ground, Acererak swung diagonally twice, taking off the right leg and arm of another.

A clawed ursa paw flew towards him, which Acererak grabbed at the wrist, squeezing it, the relatively soft flesh and bone pulped in his steel grip. He yanked the grimm forward, popping its shoulder out of its socket as he brought his sword up and around, decapitating it.

Switching his grip, Acererak crouched low under another paw and gave a sweeping strike, an outward traveling left handed swing that took both lower legs off just below the knee. While the grimm was collapsing, Acererak quickly threw his right hand as a punch, knocking its skull clear off its shoulders.  
He turned to face the last Ursa, which roared in defiance and charged forward, interrupted only by a 5 foot length of black metal tearing through its stomach, impaling it through the center. It was lifted up, until it was nearly vertical, where Acereraks cold, necrotic gaze focused in, looking up at it in disgust before flinging it off the blade, where it landed in a sad, broken heap on the side.

"We are nearly there," He said, an errant swing splitting a beowulf from the shoulder to the waist, "I can see the village walls."

Roaring its challenge, and Ursa Major confronted Acererak, rearing up on its hind legs to intimidate. Dashing forward to meet it, the lich swung as he blitzed past, carving through the side of its abdomen. Continuing the momentum he built up, he spun, bringing the sword around and over his head, a meaty _thunk_ and loud _crack_ reaching the ears of the foot soldiers as his massive greatsword buried squarely between the grimms shoulders.

Adam removed its head while Acererak levered the sword from its back, the weighty, six foot black blade having split the grimms spine in two, lengthwise. The two turned back to the grimm, Acereraks sword glowing a faint green, grimm blood evaporating off it. The looked to the sky, and saw pair of giant nevermore, each fifty feet long, swooping down to meet the infantry.

The lich held his hand up, closed in a fist, at which his entire line of undead stopped marching, holding their lines as the nevermores drew closer.

Suddenly, with an ear churning, droning noise, like a mix between grinding metal, a roar and a growl, Adam looked up, and gasped as he saw the skeleton of a wyvern flying overhead. It measured at least a hundred feet long from snout to tail, with limbs and a set of massive, hand tipped wings, bearing a span that could easily be over a hundred and fifty feet.  
The massive wyvern skeleton growled as it soared toward the grimm, focusing in on the nevermore with what could be approximated to eyes. Two balls of bright blue lightning, crackling in its empty eye sockets.  
Its physical body was held together with scraps of ligament and muscle, and an astral blue glow that pulsed in its chest like a heart, giving off blue wisps of powerful magical energy that surrounded its skeletal frame. Surrounding and wreathing its form were jagged streaks and bolts of blue lightning, overlaying the consistent, blue glow.

The undead wyvern collide with one of the nevermore, slashing with its huge talons, tearing gashes from its underbelly as it squaked and flapped away, retreating towards the town.

The second grimm took this as an opportunity to attack, sending a hail of feathers raining down on the flying wyvern skeleton, most of them harmlessly glancing off, a couple going right through the gaps in its form, and three or four landing true, each burying themselves at least a foot into the tough bone.

Retaliating in an instant, the skeletons draconic skull rotated skywards and cracked open, and deep hum growing in its chest, the ball of blue lightning and energy growing brighter and larger before rocketing out of its maw, taking the appearance of a solid whitish blue beam surrounded by neon blue lightning. Like shooting a clay pigeon, the blast nailed the nevermore in the center of the chest, punching a hole straight through it. And much like shooting clay pigeons, the nevermore essentially disintegrated, falling to pieces and tumbling to the ground.

Once the wyvern had moved on to the next nevermore, Acererak lowered his hand, urging his soldiers to march once more. Without hesitation, the resumed their grim work, butchering the forces of darkness, steadily, unceasingly, heading towards the village.

* * *

Once the nevermores had arrived, Cye Arren began to lose hope. The village had been repelling the grimm fairly well, incurring very few casualties. He'd been proud to help, he was a strong, bold member of the White Fang, and in a very good mood, seeing how he'd been recently transferred back to his home village after a stint as a bodyguard for Sienna Kahn.

And then the two nevermore showed up. With them circling like vultures, the defenders of the village were forced inside, giving the ground dwelling grimm essentially free reign of the village.

Cye had holed up in his home with his family, his father, brother, and mother all taking up arms to kill any grimm that got too close. The windows has been hastily boarded up, and the growls and ambient noises of the grimm were growing louder and more numerous by the minute.

His father, after an hour or so, heard a noise from outside, like a cross between a thunderclap and an explosion, right after a great droning, almost scraping noise. His brother pointed out the only window that wasn't boarded up, where a huge pillar of white and blue energy blasted apart a nevermore.

"Cye, look!" He shouted, frantically pointing toward the sky, "It's a dragon!"

"Dragon?" His father responded, pushing another shell into his shotgun. "I didn't know there were dragon grimm…"

He went to observe, but by the time he'd gotten to the window, it was already out of sight. From outside came the noise of a nevermore, cawing and then landing, it's wingbeats whipping the wind chimes outside into action.

Then Cye realized something. It was quiet. Aside from the wind chimes jingling slightly, all other noise had stopped. He couldn't hear any grimm growling, or stomping around, hell, the beowulf that had been scratching on their walls for the last half hour seemed to have gone silent.

Cye crept to the door, stealthy as the panther he was, and slowly opened the door. Nothing. It was like a ghost town. The only thing disturbing the perfect silence was the deep, rumbling croaking of the...nevermore. Freezing in place, the faunus slowly looked up, and spotted the giant avian grimm, perched atop the belltower in the center of town, it's chest heaving as it croaked, six huge gashes trailing down its torso.

Another growl came from down the tiny alleyway, and a lone beowulf crawled out of the darkness.

"Of course they couldn't have all left…" Cye muttered, hefting his battleaxe. He had just readied himself to strike, when a great shadow was cast on him. He whipped around, to see the nevermore, talons outstretched, ready to grab him and tear him apart.

It was only a half dozen feet from him when the dragon collided with it.

He only saw its rough shape, two legs, wicked talons, giant hand claw wings, and a long snaking tail that ended with a wicked diamond tip. It dove low, bone white talons raking the ground, actually shredding the beowulf to ribbons as its powerful wings swept it into a wicked, taloned uppercut.

The two disappeared over the next row of houses, and the combination of narrow streets, high walls, and large building overhangs stopped Cye from seeing the rest. He stood there in shock, mouth agape at what had just happened to him, until his mother lunged out of the house and pulled him back indoors.

* * *

"Wow." Adam said, as the zombie wyvern engaged the nevermore in an aerial dogfight, "Why didn't you start with that?"

"Notice how the nevermore ordered the grimm to abandon the village and focus us after it retreated." Acererak said, gesturing to the grimm pouring out of the village with the tip of his greatsword, "If I had ordered Seraphas out at the very start of the battle, he would have driven the bulk of the horde here before we could thin their numbers."

"And then we'd have stood no chance." Adam finished, the confirming nod of Acererak failing to distract him from the dance being played out by Seraphas and the nevermore. In a straight up fight, the nevermore stood no chance, and at range, it almost stood less of a chance, thanks to the wyverns beam attack. But while the zombie wyvern was much faster overall, the nevermore had it notably outmatched in agility and acrobatics, though the grimms opponent was no slouch there.

The nevermore barely dodged a bite form the bone wyvern, raking its white talons down its bony back as it flew the length of its draconic body, only knocked off course when an errant arc of blue lightning gave it a little shock after it jumped from the dragon's spine ridge.

With the nevermore slightly startled, Seraphas whipped its tail, snapping the grimms left wing inward, and smashing it off course. The dragon quickly used its huge, ligament and muscle-scrap webbed wings like a parachute to halt its momentum and turn, catching the falling grimm in its mouth, its teeth digging into the grimms neck.

With the grimm in its jaws, the wyvern dropped from the sky, landing in the center of the town, the faint jerks and twitches of the nevermore prompting Seraphas to bite down even harder, this time producing and audible snapping noise, and stopping any more movement.

He dropped the grimm, carefully adjusting his placement on the buildings so as to not put too much stress on any one structure. Once in place, he threw his head up, and bellowed out a deafening roar, a great, terrible noise that could be heard for miles around.

The undead wyvern then began clearing the village, always staying above the narrow, maze-like web of alleyways and tiny paths that made up the town by walking across the rooftops, his huge, skeletal frame casting a jagged series of shadows on the ground.

Considering the sheer size of Seraphas, traversing and scouring the village took little time. His long, serpentine neck reached down into alleyways and roads, diamond tipped whiplike tail skewering any too difficult to reach with his head, leaving streaks of black blood on his tail and muzzle.

At the sound of a small growl, Seraphas turned, his neck twisting to look at the Ursa Major on the ground below him. He moved the rest of his body, keeping his head in place, his eye analogues locked on the grimm as the rest of his body shifted and brought itself around to face the grimm bear.

He growled back, lower jaw trembling in what could be viewed as anticipation, before lunging forward, two rows of foot long teeth shooting forward.

* * *

 **A bit shorter than the last few chapters, but I was going to game end myself if I waited another week to finish it. So enjoy my dudes, and look forward to the next chapter, hopefully in 2-ish weeks.**


	8. Chapter 7: Midnight Meetings

**Big oof gamers, this is a few days late. Sorry about that.**

 **I'm not sure if everyone can tell, but there is quite a bit of Homebrew D &D in this fic, as well as me adapting D&D into a way that I feel works for the story, so condolences in advance if people don't like that. Enjoy!**

* * *

The jaws snapped shut, as Vulkahn swallowed a chunk of raw meat Jaune had thrown to him, molten orange tongue licking his chops in satisfaction. He rumbled contentedly as Jaunes blackish grey gauntlet scratched him under the chin, and eliciting something similar to a dog panting when Pyrrha joined in behind his two horns.

"Woah!" Nora shouted, bounding up to Vulkahn, who squared his shoulders and eyed the aggressively energetic girl with suspicion, "what's that?"

"It looks like a lizard dog!" Ruby answered, dashing up to the magma drake, who seemed to be getting nervous, his magmic glow becoming brighter and hotter.

"But it's on fire!" Yang said, elbowing Ruby out of the way to get a good look at Vulkahn, who was now slowly backing up towards Jaune and Pyrrha, "That's soooo cool!"

"Hey Jaune, can I pet him?" The blonde asked, batting her eyelashes at the knight, who rolled his eyes and responded.

"Just don't annoy him." He called back, "If he melts your gauntlets, that's on you."

"Melts my gauntlets?" Yang asked incredulously, "how hot do you think-"

 _ **Blarp**_

"Shit," Jaune hissed to himself as he watched Vulkahn throw up, the drake hacking up a small puddle of magma and a charred, semi digested hunk of meat, "I can never tell my meats apart…"

"Woah woah woah!" Yang yelled, hands raised as she backpedaled form the small puddle of lava, now rapidly cooling on the ground, "Did that thing just vomit?"

"That _thing_ ," Jaune said as he glared at Yang, as he soothingly rubbed his companions back, the magma drake rumbling in contentment and smug satisfaction, "is named Vulkahn. And yes, he did vomit."

"He doesn't handle certain foods too well…" The knight continued as Nora poked at the charred meat with a stick, "Think I accidentally gave him mutton..."

"Uh hey Jaune?" Pyrrha said, looking over her shoulder, "You might want to get him out of here. Ozpin is coming and he looks worried."

"Crap…" Jaune hissed, swiftly beginning to cast a spell known as **Desummon** , a rather useful trick created by Lord Acererak for storing creatures, functioning kind of like a watered down, less harsh version of **Banishment** , "I was worried about that."

"Jaune, what is going on here?" The headmaster said, the grip on his cane tightening visibly, just as Vulkahn faded out of existence.

"Nothing much Headmaster." He said, as Ozpin frowned slightly.

"Really?" He asked, a hint of sarcasm worming its way into his voice, "Then what happened to that thing you rode up the cliff?"

"Oh that?" Jaune said, trying and failing to feign ignorance, "I just uh...de...summoned...it…?"

From behind the headmaster, Glynda glared.

* * *

"Qrow's a slippery bastard," Raven admitted, as she sat down across from Morrigan in her tent, "as you know by now."

"That we do." Morrigan sighed, rubbing her forehead as one of Ravens tribesman brought a try with tea on it. "Should we be worried?"

"Yes and no," Raven said, pausing momentarily to shoo the man who brought the tea away, "The good news is that Qrow is not very...complicated."

"How so?" Morrigan leaned forward, "A man capable of Polymorphing himself on a whim sounds like quite an adversary."

"I meant his motives." The Branwen Tribe leader explained further. "He works for Ozpin gathering intelligence, but beyond his skill, that's about it. He doesn't have any huge ambitions, he just follows Ozpins orders." She said, with no small amount of distaste.

"Then I assume Ozpin is the one to be careful about."

"Yes." Raven took a tiny sip of her tea, wincing slightly when the still too hot liquid reached her lips. "He's got a...secret society."

"Secret society?" Morrigan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Beyond Ozpin, Qrow and Glynda, I don't know who's even in it. I don't know what they want either, they keep things very well hidden."

"That does sound like a problem," Morrigan admitted, taking a sip of tea to be polite, "I suppose we can't just meet with Ozpin?"

"Not if what you did to Qrow and that bullhead is true."

"Well then-" She was cut off by the sound of her scroll buzzing, harshly rattling against the plate armor she wore. She drew it out of a small, rectangular pouch on her hip, and answered it.

"Hello?" She said, a little annoyed about the interruption.

"Lady Morrigan, I need you back in Vale as soon as you can be," Came the deep voice of Lord Acererak, "we may have a problem."

"Of course my Lord," The annoyance evaporating in a millisecond, "should I bring Lady Branwen?"

"If possible, yes." At this Morrigan looked over to the swordswoman, raising an eyebrow, to which the black haired bandit nodded.

"She will be joining us, yes." The female nevermore confirmed, as the two stood up from the table, as Morrigan bid Acererak farewell and hung up. The two swiftly finished their tea and exited the tent.

Quickly, the low hum of a bullhead reached their ears, swiftly growing in volume as it drew closer and closer. Raven looked up, and saw a heavily modified bullhead, the main body layered in heavy, angular plates, and the whole thing painted a solid shade of black, with an olive green symbol drawn on the sides.

The symbol was composed of a circle, and a small cross inside it. The horizontal bars of the cross had a small dot between it and the circle's edge, while the top and lower bars of the cross were tipped with what looked like a U, and another, much smaller circle with a line running three quarters of the way through it.

"I assume that's our ride?" Raven asked as the bullhead landed, the back door folding down into a ramp. The inside was decorated with utilitarian black leather upholstery and a rack of spare parachutes.

"It is," Morrigan said as she reached the ramp, "come on!" She said, waving.

"Lord Acererak is waiting."

* * *

"Led by…" The voice of Ozpin stopped for a second as he looked down at his scroll, "Ruby Rose!"

Simultaneously, both Ruby and Weiss's eyes opened, both in surprise and disbelief. Ruby's surprise however, was cut short when Yang scooped her up in a bearhug.

"I'm so proud of you!" She gushed, much to the displeasure of her younger sister.

"And that concludes the ceremony," the headmaster said, his tone of voice already wrapping things up, "I'll now ask all of you to make your way to your dorms, and get a good night's sleep, tomorrow will be the start of your life at Beacon. Thank you."

* * *

"I swear Jaune's armor looked different during the initiation…" Pyrrha muttered to herself as she looked at the set of black plate armor. It just looked too bulky now. It seemed rotund, and much wider than when Jaune was wearing it. The gauntlets looked way oversized, and the chest was now barrel shaped, not like the slim, form fitting look it had just a few hours earlier.

"Yeah," Nora interjected, humming a little as she skipped over to it, "it looks...fat."

"Nora." Came the voice of Ren, who was sitting on the bed on the boys side of the dorm. "That's mean."

"But Reeeeeeen," Nora groaned, "it's true, come look!"

Huffing to himself, Ren rolled his pink eyes, he lifted himself off his bed and strode over to the armor on Jaune's side. He narrowed his eyes, and frowned, tenderly picking up the chestpiece.

"This is," he grunted a little as he moved to use both hands, "very heavy...This stuff can't be easy to wear, especially with his chainmail."

"But look how big his gloves are!" Nora said, picking up one and putting it on. "It's huge!"

As she spoke, the gauntlet shifted, the metal contorting and shrinking, until it formed a skin tight fit around her relatively smaller hand.

"Wooooah…" Nora mumbled, stars in her eyes as she looked at the gauntlet, now a super form fitting metal glove, the cool metal resting comfortably against her skin.

"Wow." Pyrrha said, almost at a loss for words.

"Ren!" Nora snapped, a maniacal grin on her face as she turned to her partner. "Put it on!"

Ren looked down at the huge chestpiece in his hands and sighed. Now that Nora had her mind set, nothing short of a stack of pancakes would deter her now. Resigned to the act, he slipped the barrel shaped torso over his head and arms.

"Pyrrha look!" The ginger grabbed the red headed spartan and turned her attention to Ren, as the metal shifted, shrinking and deforming, until it was tightly wrapped around his body, shifting and moving as he did, like a second skin.

"Can you breath in that?" Pyrrha asked incredulously, as Nora ran her hand over the armor, watching as it shifted ever so slightly as Ren breathed.

"I'd sure hope he could," came Jaunes voice, having gotten dressed in a pair of denim pants, leather boots, and a plain grey shirt, a white towel in his hand, blond hair still damp from his shower, "That might make things difficult."

"Oh!" Nora yelped, whipping around to face the team leader, "Hiii Jaune!"

"Nora," Jaune sighed, as the ginger stood in front of Ren, in an attempt to hide him, "I can still see him."

* * *

"We're here." Morrigan said, as the door to the bullhead opened, forming a ramp to the ground. She and Raven disembarked, and entered the once abandoned warehouse, through a door flanked by two heavily armored guards, former White Fang by the looks of it, but now dressed in solid black and grey plate mail.

"Lady Morrigan," came the deep, booming voice of Acererak, "punctual as always."

"I try, Lord Acererak," she said, bowing, before waving Raven forward, "Lady Raven is with me."

"Lady Raven of the Branwen Tribe," the lich said, rising from his throne, "I've heard quite a lot about you. It's wonderful to finally meet face to face."

"The feeling is mutual," the bandit responded, taking a seat at the table, trying vainly to not be intimidated by the ten foot necromancer in the room, "so what's going on?"

"We are just waiting for Jaune," Acererak said, sitting back down, the skeleton of some python like creature slowly coiling around the back of his obsidian throne, "then we can begin."

* * *

" _Could they really not wait until the weekend?"_ Jaune grumbled to himself as he snuck through the darkened halls of Beacon. He'd received a message on his scroll to meet with Lord Acererak and Lady Morrigan as soon as he could.

So now he found himself creeping down the empty corridors of the school, amour softly clanking despite his best efforts. It's not like he was built for stealth after all, being just over six foot and wearing a suit of armor, with chainmail underneath.

Then he paused. Something didn't feel right. He narrowed his eyes, scanning the halls as best he could, looking for anything. It felt like someone was...watching him. Like a presence was just out of view, a being he could feel, but not see.

Slowly, he drew his sword, the metal softly scraping against the wood and leather, the familiar weight of his blade bringing some comfort. He waited for a full two minutes in absolute silence before he dared to move, one foot at a time.

* * *

' _And where do you think you're going?'_ Blake thought to herself as she watched Jaune creep down the hall. As a notoriously light sleeper, the sound of his armor gently moving past the door was more than enough to wake her.

She moved carefully, exiting the room unnoticed, and began to follow the knight down the halls. He was moving slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible as he crept through the halls. But after a few minutes he stopped.

He looked around, like he was trying to find her. His eyes flitted over her body for just a second, his golden eyes glowing in the dark as the passed over her hidden form. Blake held her breath as his hand closed around the hilt of his sword, as he drew it out of the scabbard painfully slowly, producing a muted scraping noise.

Two full minutes passed before Jaune resumed moving, one foot at a time, gently carrying him down the hall. Blake waited until he was around the corner before she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Again she followed him, through some more hallways, around a corner, down two flights of stairs and to a small side door, where Jaune stopped. He slid his sword back into its scabbard, and raised his right hand, which began to heat up.

Steam rose from the joints in his armor as his gauntlet began to heat up, the black metal shifting to a dull red, then a brighter orange, eventually transitioning to brilliant glowing white. Jaune then placed his palm on the lock, and waited, Blake watching carefully from the shadows as the metal handle began to heat up as well.

After a few seconds, Jaune removed his hand, and smiled to himself as he looked at the locking mechanism, now glowing a bright orange. His gauntlets quickly cooled down, and once they were back to their usual black color, he pushed, the glowing hot lock now offering no resistance, as Jaunes push bent the deadbolt like a stick of butter.

The door swung open, showing a winding, wooded path through a courtyard, the stone walk disappearing around a corner, where it would most likely lead to the bridge just out the main doors.

Jaune stepped out the doorway, and raised his hand, soft red light coalescing in his palm, becoming sharper and sharper as it formed into a circular shape, eventually becoming a clear series of glowing red lines, hovering about a half-foot in front of his hand as a sharp, clear image of an angular rune encased in a circle.

As he spoke under his breath, muttering a phrase in what might have been another language, Blake snuck forward, now just behind the doorway. As Jaune spoke to himself, the symbol faded into view on the ground in front of him, suddenly flashing bright enough to force Blake to cover her eyes.

When the glow faded, Jaunes demented pet was standing there. Vulkahn, if she remembered correctly, the wolf stanced fire lizard. Fifteen feet of obsidian scale, glowing magma and fire, white hot talons hissing as they scorched the ground beneath them, eye glowing like coals in the night, the ridge of seething flame running down its back stopping only for a moment as Jaune somehow pulled a full sized leather saddle out of a pouch on his waist.

He secured it to the lizard, tightening the straps that ran around his underside, and a couple that ran around the back of its head, looping around its horns tightly, giving Jaune some reigns to hold. Now with the saddle secure, the knight pulled himself up, sitting comfortable on the dragons mid back.

He gently whispered something to his pet drake, and the beast shot off, breaking into a dead sprint across the courtyard, white hot talons kicking up dirt, and a trail of fire crackling in the air behind it as it bounded around the corner.

Only when she was positive they were out of range, did Blake move to stop the recording.

* * *

"Hiyah!" Jaune shouted as Vulkahn jumped onto the stone bridge, claws leaving long scratches in the stonework. But he ran on, the straightness of the bridge allowing the magma drake to reach his top speed on stone, nearing 40 miles an hour, becoming little more than a trail of fire between the two rows of street lamps.

As they neared the commercial district of Vale, Vulkahn slowed down, and once he had an opening, leapt onto the top of one of the smallest buildings, giving him easy access to the rooftops, bypassing the light traffic entirely.

Vulkahn lost no speed, leaping across rooftops and climbing higher into the night sky, at one point scaring the shit out of a couple of pigeons who'd had the honor of getting a fly by singeing. Jaune whooped and shouted as the air rushed past his hair, the wind fluttering in his waistcloth as Vulkahn leapt onto the corrugated metal roof of a warehouse, now only a half block or so from his destination.

"Down there Vulkahn!" The knight shouted, pointing to the back loading bay of a warehouse. The drake rumbled and leapt, jumping off the roof and landing on the pavement, talons tearing ruts in the blacktop as the magma drake skidded to a full stop.

"You're late." Came the stern voice of Morrigan, her, Acererak, Zalthar, Adam, Roman and Raven having just exited the building.

"I'm sorry Lady Morrigan," Jaune said, dismounting Vulkahn, "but in my defense, Beacon is built like a labyrinth."

"It matters not," interjected Zalthar, "what does matter is that Sir Jaune is here, and out meeting can proceed."

* * *

"The reports are not conclusive as of right now," said the vampire as Acererak steepled his gauntleted hands, "but current information coupled with civilian reports show that something has followed us through."

"Well that's not good." Roman said, digesting the information that someone or something from his new bosses world had snuck through to Remnant.

"If we are lucky, it is nothing worse than a troll." Acererak said, deep voice echoing throughout the mostly empty warehouse. "But we need to be on our guard, all of us."

"The only thing we know for certain is that it is not a person," Morrigan said, jumping in to the conversation, "so we won't have to worry about any paladins ruining everything."

"How would these, paladins, be a threat?" Raven asked, lounging in her chair. "I don't know about you," she said, gesturing to Jaune, "but I wouldn't be very worried about one person."

"That's not the problem," Jaune responded, "most paladins are real charming, they evangelize quickly."

"I'm guessing it's not their skill, it's their influence." Adam said, drawing a couple nods from the attendants.

"A paladin led force could prove disastrous for our operations." Came the voice of Acererak again. "If they could gain enough support, hypothetically, they could force us to come out of hiding prematurely."

"But it's not a paladin, so we're good?" Roman said, a light smile on his face.

"Again, that depends on what exactly has followed us through," said Zalthar, "most likely, it is nothing more than a simple orc or goblin, nought more than a minor threat to anyone."

* * *

A lone beowulf stalked through the moonlit woods, prowling about the skeletal and ashen remains of the Emerald Forest, the raging fire having been defeated a few days before. The grimm growled, red eyes scanning the surrounding environment, looking for anything to sink its teeth into.

About two dozen feet or so behind it, came a sharp noise. The grimm whipped its head around, growling in warning at the sudden sound. Baring its teeth, the black wolf walked forward, crimson eyes honed in on the exact spot of the sound.

Its focus locked on the corpse of a tree in front of it, the grimm failed to acknowledge another sound, this one like a deep, rumbling hiss, infused with a sound like dragging a blade across stone. It was the only warning the grimm received.

Within a moment, a shape surged forward, accompanied by a sound like metal scraping across metal, moving deceptively fast for something of its size, turning the grimm to ribbons in a split-second, the beowulf not even having time to howl, it's plight unseen amidst the dark, and the glinting of moonlight on silver.

The shredded remains of the grimm beneath it, the dark, shrouded being roared, unleashing a ear piercing cry, like a thousand knives being sharpened at once, each one echoing and overlapping itself, giving the roar no definite end or beginning.

Its quarry dispatched, the creature slinked off, nimble form and agile limbs allowing it to weave between the twisted graveyard of a forest, as it disappeared into the night.


	9. Chapter 8: Fighting Fire with Fire

**Howdy gamers, I'm back with another chapter of Rising Titans. This one has quite a bit of action, so I hope y'all enjoy!**

 **-Athk0r3**

* * *

"All I'm saying is that it worked for me." Jaune said, putting his hands in the air as Port chuckled.

"Well it certainly did work for you, my boy." Port said. "But not everyone can simply incinerate a deathstalker from the inside out like you did."

"Well the idea is still the same," the knight argued, "If you get through its shell, you can kill it, just use explosives or whatever you've got."

"But the issue is getting through said shell. The carapace of a deathstalker is notoriously tough, and not everyone has the strength to penetrate it."

"Then have a team member with enough strength do it."

"Perhaps, but it is much less physically demanding to target weak points." The older professor countered, "Attacking it through the eyes lets you bypass its armor."

"Not everyone has the precision to do that," Jaune said, turning the huntsmans words against him, "But force will always work, eventually."

"And in that time, a deathstalker would tear you in half a dozen times!" Port stated emphatically, the entire conversation having put the rest of the class to sleep.

Only Ruby, Blake, Pyrrha and Weiss were awake, and only the latter two were paying attention, mostly on Jaune. In truth, everyone was relieved, as Jaune's interruption and subsequent argument had halted Port in the middle of a long, played up tale about his glory days, where he apparently killed a deathstalker with a single shot through its eye.

Jaune had taken objection to this, arguing that attacking through its upper shell was safer and more reliable, because it was a place out of reach of its claws, and didn't need any feats of precision, just strength. Port had, predictably, rebuked, countering that the time it took was not worth the effort, and going through a weak point was more time-efficient, if more difficult.

Then the conversation devolved into whether or not people even could reliably go through the upper shell, something Jaune had managed to do during the initiation.

"Well then," he said, "I'd just hit it harder."

Fortunately, the bell had rung in the middle of Jaune's closing remarks, jolting the class awake.

"And there's the bell!" Port said, as the students stood up, grabbing their books. "Next class we'll finish my lesson, and talk about boarbatusk. A wonderful conversation young man, best of luck to you!"

"Same to you, Sir Port." Jaune said, waving back as he left.

* * *

" _What about now?"_ Ruby whispered, as her and her team watched Jaune leave the classroom. Early that morning, Blake had told them about Jaune sneaking off, and showed them the video she took.

Ruby was a little sad Jaune didn't invite her, while Yang was pretty suspicious. She'd already been keeping an eye on him, what with how close he'd gotten to her sister in only a day, but him sneaking off with Vulkahn in the middle of the night didn't sit well with the blonde.

And Weiss had jumped to his defense, most likely partially just to spite Ruby, leading to a rather heated argument between Weiss and Yang. Eventually, at Ruby's behest, the group had voted on what to do, eventually deciding to confront him.

" _No,"_ Weiss hissed, as Jaune rounded the corner, " _It's too late now, he's already almost at the room."_

" _Fine,"_ Yang whispered back angrily, " _Next class."_

* * *

"Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war?"  
"The Battle at Fort Castle." Came the voice of Weiss.  
"Precisely! And! Who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagoon's forces?"  
During this pause, Jaune shifted in his seat, the sudden movement catching the professors eye "Mr. Arc!" said Oobleck. "You've an answer! This is excellent! Excellent! Now, what is the answer?"

Jaune coughed awkwardly, and looked over to Pyrrha, who was making vague gestures with her fingers to her face, mouthing, "Night vision." But Jaune didn't get it, because of course he didn't. She then pointed to her eyes with both hands.  
Jaune's head snapped back, and he proudly proclaimed, "Eyes!"  
Pyrrha put her face in her hands as the class cackled.

"Hilarious, Mr. Arc." Oobleck looked up and noticed Cardin was guffawing hardest of all. "Mr. Winchester. Perhaps you would like to share your thoughts on the subject."  
Cardin leaned back and put his feet up on the desk, a smug grin on his face. "Well, I know that it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier."  
"Wanna rephrase that?" Jaune growled, now on his feet, one hand on his desk, the other curled into a fist. Already, smoke and sparks were drifting from his hair and body, golden eyes intensifying in brightness.

"Do you have a problem?" He snarked back, as Jaune glared even harder.

"No," he spat, "but I do have the answer. It's night vision."

"Correct!" Doctor Oobleck shouted, trying and failing to lower the tension in the room. "Many Faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark. This distinct advantage allowed them to launch their attack at night nearly unhindered, leaving General Lagoon's forces in the dark, so to speak."

It was then that Blake chimed in, adding her own input, "General Lagoon was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched and the general was captured." She then turned to Cardin. "Perhaps if he had paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

"Mister Winchester," Oobleck warned as Cardin began to shake his fist, "that's enough. In fact, you can see me after class for additional readings."

" _Okja lat jag_." Jaune said to himself, a smug grin on his face, until it was wiped off by Oobleck.

"Don't think I didn't hear that Mister Arc," The green haired professor said, as Jaunes smile evaporated, "just because you're speaking in a different language doesn't mean I don't understand intention. Meet with me after class."

And at that, the bell rung.

"Ah, speak of the devil," Oobleck muttered, before turning back to the class, "Well unfortunately that's all we have time for today. Remember, I want your work done on time, understood?"

And like that, class was over. Everyone except for Jaune and Cardin left, the two remaining students shuffling over to the front desk. Oobleck decided to focus on Cardin first.

"Mister Winchester, you have been struggling in my class since day one. Now, I don't know if it's a lack of interest, or just your stubborn natures, but whatever it is, it stops now. You've worked hard to gain entrance to this school, and as such, we only accept the best of the best." He paused for emphasis, "So I expect you to act like it."  
"History is important, Cardin. If you can't learn from it, you're destined to repeat it. Your assignment is pages fifty-one to ninety-one, and I want an essay on my desk by next class. Now go, I still need to talk to Jaune here."

Once Cardin left, Jaune spoke.

"I apologize Sir Oobleck," he lowered his head slightly, "my outburst was uncalled for."

"Oh that?" Oobleck asked, sounding a tad confused, "That's not the problem here, Mister Winchesters comments were very insulting, I do not blame you for your response."

"O-oh," Jaune responded, sounding even more confused, "Then what is the problem?"

"In a sense, you are." He said, this drew a few looks from outside the door, where team RWBY was waiting, the thin wooden door doing seemingly nothing to dampen the sound of the two talking.

"You are a bit of an enigma, to put it frankly," Oobleck said, adjusting his glasses, "You come from outside the kingdoms, from a place no one, you included, has been able to find on a map, aced the exams, performed phenomenally during the initiation, have since stayed at the top of the class, and now I hear you speaking a language I've never heard in my life."

"You mean Orcish?"

"Is that it's name?" Oobleck asked, "Interesting. I'll see if I can find anything about 'Orcish' later today."

"I don't mean to be rude, Sir Oobleck-"

"Doctor."

"-Doctor Oobleck," Jaune continued, "but why is my story important."

"Because it's unusual. You were orphaned at age four," A small noise of surprise came from R and W of RWBY, "then adopted at 12, where you received enough informal training to pass every single combat exam you needed to attend."

"But anyway," The doctor waved his hand dismissively, "my point is that you're unique, Jaune, and I'd like to learn more about you. So instead of an essay like Mister Winchester, you will be writing a short, two page paper on this...orcish language, understood."

"Understood Si-Doctor Oobleck." Jaune corrected himself, before making a final remark.

"Just a little warning," the knight began, "Orcish isn't easy on non-native speakers. Or the ears for that matter. It does make it a good language for insults thought."

"As was that phrase you spoke earlier, I presume."

"Well, _Okja lat jag_ means roughly, 'Serves you right'," Jaune clarified, not truly wanting to explain the intricacies of the Orcish lexicon at the moment, "but the language sounds so harsh that it might as well be."

"That it does, Mister Arc." The doctor paused to take a drink from his thermos before he continued, "Now go, but I expect that paper on my desk by next week!"

Jaune quickly gathered his things and left, exiting through the door. He was just about to pull up a floor plan of the school to find his next class when he found himself surrounded by Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang.

"Hello there," Jaune said, as the four young students surrounded him, "Ruby, Blake, Yang...Weiss, good to see you all again." He said, placing a little extra emphasis on Weiss's name.

"Jaune," Yang said, getting right to the point, "where did you go last night?"

"To bed. Where else?" He responded, now realising what happened, and trying to inch his way out of the circle.

"Blake says otherwise." She said, jabbing a thumb at her dark haired partner, who gave Jaune a disapproving look.

"What does she say?" The knight said, stalling for time, as the clock ticked ever closer to the next bell.

"She said you left the building with your lizard dog late last night." Spoke the girl in question.

" _His_ name is Vulkahn," Jaune said back, eyes narrowing in mild annoyance, "and he's a magma drake."

"Not the point, Jaune," Ruby said, "Blake caught you red handed!"

"Are you telling me Blake was sneaking around the building at night?" Jaune said, sensing a way out.

"W-well yeah…" Ruby trailed off, "But she had to, because you were being suspicious."

And there it was. A way out.

"Your partner is stalking me?" Jaune said, exaggerated incredulity and all, "How creepy is that? Next thing you're gonna tell me is that she was recording the whole thing."

"W-wait it's not like that!" Blake stammered, now embarrassed.

"Oh my gods," Jaune backed away in false horror, "What is _wrong_ with you?"

"I think that's enough," Weiss said, stepping forward as Jaune stepped back, taking hold of his arm and moving him next to her, "Let's leave Jaune alone, alright?"

"At least _someone_ here has some decency…" He said, as he looked over to her, and held out a hand, "But anyways, the bell is going to ring soon, and I need to get to my next class, care to join me?"

"I would love to, Jaune." Weiss said, turning a notable shade of pink as she took his hand politely. The two walked away from the group, the other three now glaring at Jaunes rapidly retreating head.

Looks like he's escaped this time.

* * *

"When your aura is in the red, I will declare the match over, understood?" The authoritative voice of Glynda echoed throughout the arena, and was met with a series of half-hearted nods and sounds of agreement.

"Good," She said, glancing over at her scroll for a moment, "You have five minutes to get ready."

Jaune stood, and bid Pyrrha adieu, and went down to the men's lockers.

* * *

Moving quickly, Jaune pulled his armor out of his bag of holding, laying out the plain underclothes, chainmail, and plate armor on a spare bench.

He swiftly exchanged his clothes, pulling the slim fitting black undershirt over his head. He adjusted the sleeves, making sure they covered his arms.

Then he slipped on his chainmail, putting his legs through the rings of silvery metal, and stepping into his heavy, leather boots. Bending down, he laced them up, before stepping into his black metal sabatons, the heavily enchanted armor conforming to his feet.

Next were his greaves, the magical metal once again adhering to his legs, before he reached for the next piece of chain mail, quickly putting his arms and head through their respective holes, before he reached for his chest plate. The large, almost barrel shaped piece went on easy, and once it was in place, the segmented chunk of armor began to shrink and contort, once again conforming to the shape of Jaunes torso, black and gold tabard hanging just past his knees

He had just put on his belt and waistcloth, the thick leather pouches and bags settling on his hips, black cloth flowing behind him, falling down to his lower shins, when he got a push on the shoulder. He turned around, slipping on his left gauntlet, and came face to face with Cardin Winchester and his team.

"What do you want?" Jaune said as he donned his right gauntlet, flexing his hand as the metal constricted. He smirked internally when Cardins eyes briefly jumped down to his hand, eyeing the four triangular studs on the knuckles with no small amount of caution.

"You think you can just make me look like a dumbass like that?" He said, his three cronies nodding and making affirmative noises, "In front of an entire class?"

"You think you can just say something so insulting and expect me not to put you in your place?" Jaune said, stepping forward. He was only about an inch taller than Cardin, but it was better than nothing.

"Those animals are the ones that need to be put in their place." Cardin snapped back, as Jaunes glare intensified. The knight's eyes narrowed, the gold light growing brighter and harsher, smoke and sparks riding up from his hair and body.

"Animals, huh?" Jaune practically growled, raising a hand slowly, to reveal a left gauntlet, glowing white hot, steam wafting off it, much to the rising fear of Cardin.

"I think," Jaune said slowly, thoughtfully, as he placed his gauntleted hand on Cardins shoulder plate, hissing and metallic groaning coming from the metal, "you're the only one who needs to be taught a lesson."

With that he released his hand, revealing an imprint of his palm and fingers left in the metal, which was now glowing a bright shade of orange in protest to the extreme heat. By the time Cardin looked back to Jaune, he's already removed his sword and shield from his bag of holding, and strapped the sheathed blade to his hip, heater shield on his left arm.

* * *

"I can't believe he would do that!" Yang shouted angrily to her team, having already chewed out Weiss in the locker room.

"To be fair," Weiss said, trying to vainly stick up for Jaune, "You were following him around at night, that it pretty creepy."

"You are not allowed to talk after that!" Yang said, pointing a finger at Weiss.

"After what?" She shrieked back.

"We had a plan," The blonde started, "and you just let him go! You were holding his arm after he kept dodging the question."

"I just wanted to be nice!"

"We almost had him!"

"Attention!" Shouted Glynda, silencing the room, "Is everyone back?"

Swiftly checking her scroll in silence, Glynda continued once she had confirmed that everyone returned.

"Everyone seems to be present," She said, exiting the arena and heading up to the spectator area, "and as such, I will now announce the first match. Remember, it will be up to you to monitor your aura."

" _I hope I get to fight Jaune"_ Yang whispered, mostly to herself.

"First up, Yang Xiao Long versus…" there was a dramatic pause.

"Jaune Arc."

* * *

Jaune eyes his opponent from across the arena, golden eyes looking into lilac. Aurum Mors in his hands, Ember Celica around hers. Jaune held a neutral expression as he shifted slightly, contrasting heavily with Yangs malicious grin, omnipresent as she bounced on her heels.

"Begin!" Said Glynda, spurring the two into action.

It was fairly obvious which of the two was faster, evident when Yang shot across the arena, fist raised, aiming to punch Jaune into next week. Instead, her fist slammed into Jaunes shield, stopping her dead, to her mild surprise. She looked at Jaune, whos eyes flashed much brighter for a split second, before Yang was forced to backstep a horizontal slash.

She glared, and rushed forward again, throwing two more punches, both connecting solidly with his shield, the thick, black metal holding with little effort. Her third punched was slapped away with the flat of his blade, making enough room for Jaune to punch her in the chest with his shield, landing a solid hit to her torso.

Now Jaune was on the offensive, moving forward with a quick thrust, followed by a spinning slash and ending with a vertical strike, which just clipped Yangs shoulder, leaving him open. Now it was her turn to land a hit, sending a strong jab into Jaunes shoulder, resulting in most of the force being absorbed into his pauldron.

Jaune skidded back, heavy, metal coated boots scraping against the floor. While he began directing his pyromancy, Yang fired her gauntlets, sending clouds of fire downrange towards Jaune, who charged forward. He leapt out of the ball of fire, tongues of orange heat licking his armor, and landed an airborne shield punch on Yangs head, knocking her back.

As Yang jumped forward, propelled by her gauntlets, Jaune raised his shield, tilting it at an angle, making Yangs gauntlets skid off, assisted by a push from the shield. Now with her hand above her head, Jaune kicked forward, landing his boot on Yangs midriff.

' _That hurt_ ' Yang jumped backwards and hissed to herself. The strike hadn't done any insane damage to her aura, but it burned. She glanced down to her stomach, where the faint image of Jaunes sabatons were visible as small lines of char, faint wisps of smoke drifting off the fabric. She looked down his boots, which were slightly obscured by the wafting trails of steam flowing from the joints and plates. The metal itself was glowing a bright orange, like a branding iron.

' _Time to kick it into high gear.'_ She thought to herself, as she activated her semblance, her hair bursting into flames, eyes turning crimson. Jaune stopped, stepping back in surprise, before hunching his shoulders and turning up his own heat, his boots, greaves, vambraces and gauntlets all now glowing white hot.

She shot forward, fist raised, sending a blistering punch streaking towards his head. Jaune sidestepped, narrowly avoiding the punch as it screamed past her head. The knight countered with a backflip, sending the heavy, white hot metal boot into Yangs chin.

Unfortunately for Jaune, he was not at all familiar with her semblance, a powerful ability that allowed Yang to store the kinetic energy built up from her opponents strikes, and discharge it herself. This translated into Yang punching Jaunes sword arm with nearly triple the force, considering how much raw strength Jaune could put into his kicks. This strike in turn translated into Jaunes sword being knocked from his grasp. Hearing the sound of air parting, Jaune raised his shield in the nick of time, catching a follow up punch with the face, sending a small shockwave rippling through the arena.

Not being the most strategic fighter, Yang followed up her punch with two more, the metal of Ember Celica slamming against Aurum Turrim. Jaune shifted his shield to redirect her final punch, and followed up with a right handed strike of his own, bringing the heavy gauntlet across her face, crashing into her cheek, the white hot metal stunning her enough for him to back up safely and launch a jet of fire after stowing his shield on his back.

"Stop that!" She shouted angrily, only to be blasted with another monstrous torrent of flame, yelling out as the fire washed over her, melting away her aura, "Let me hit you!"

"Your arm will fall off before you break my shield," Jaune yelled back, still pouring fire at her as he walked forward, "So how about I give you a chance!"

Jaune sprinted forward as he cut off the fire, and reared back his right fist for a devastating punch, smoke and steam trailing off it as Yang mirrored him, ready to meet his strike head on.

The two connected, fist to fist, gauntlet to gauntlet, as the pyromancy charge in Jaunes hand detonated, a large explosion materializing from where the two connected, making Yang reel backwards. Shooting his hand forward, Jaune grabbed Yang by the hair, and yanked her head down to meet his rising knee, before driving his right hand into her stomach, lifting her off the ground before dropping her down.

"Stop!" Shouted Glynda, calling the match. Although Yangs aura was only about two thirds depleted, it was fairly obvious who would win. At the sound of her voice, Jaune immediately backed off, leaving Yang to pick herself up.

While he was looking around, scanning the arena floor for his dropped sword, he didn't notice Yang rise behind him, hair aglow and eyes red with rage. He didn't hear her run forward, didn't hear her growl at him, until Pyrrha shouted.

"Jaune, behind you!" She yelled, Jaunes eyes narrowing as he whipped around.

And met Yangs fist.

She drove it upwards into his stomach, lifting him about two feet into the air, heavy armor and all. A not so small amount of blood flew out of his mouth and over Yangs shoulder as his mouth shot open in pain, air and viscera driven from his body by the devastating punch, bringing gasps out form the crowd as well as a few strangle cries of pain.

"Don't touch my hair." She hissed, his eyes wide open in pain.

She withdrew her fist shortly after as Glynda began shouting angrily, her semblance shutting off at the realization of what she did.

* * *

Jaune meanwhile dropped to the ground, coughing and gasping for breath. On his hands and knees, he gasped again, and coughed, before spitting, sending a small splatter of blood to the ground. He wiped his mouth, red crimson wiping off on his metal gauntlet as he shakily got to his feet, smoke and fire drifting from beneath his armor and hair.

His eyes narrowed in anger, glowing like twin golden suns in his skull as he glared at the back of Yangs head. He grit his teeth as he forced himself upwards, wincing internally at the pain in his chest and stomach, sticking his right hand into his bag of holding.

He withdrew his trust mace. Three feet of heavy steel, capped with a twenty pound, three flanged head, each flange a thick plate of black, sharpened metal.

" _Skullbreaker_ " He whispered to himself, as the heft and weight settled into his hands. He moved quickly, draggin the head of the mace on the floor as he approached Yang.

The only warning she got was a frantic "Look out!" from Ruby.

She turned just in time for a two handed overhead strike from a forty pound mace to smash into her face, slamming her into the ground, regret and fear in her eyes as Jaune raised the mace again, eyes burning with anger as he brought it down.

Yang managed to roll out of the way, and instead of her head, the mace smashed into the ground, sending a spider web of cracks across the stony floor.

As she got to her feet, she realized something. For the first time since she'd arrived at Beacon, Yang was scared. She'd hit Jaune hard enough to make him bleed, and it entirely backfired. She'd hoped that it would intimidate him enough to not mess with her and her team. She didn't anticipate just how ruthless he would get.

And he was winning.

Yang only had another hit or two before her aura gave out, and then there was no doubt in her mind that Jaune would only need one swing to finish her. He was throwing some serious weight around with that mace, and she'd rather not take another direct hit.

Apparently Jaune had other ideas, evident when the mace slammed into her midsection, throwing her into a wall, aura finally gone. Her vision started to fade as Jaune approached, mace throwing up sparks as he dragged it behind him, tongues of flame leaping from his eyes and mouth when they opened, smoke rising from the joints of his armor, blood trickling out of his mouth, and running down his stomach, pouring out of a chink in his plate.

He raised his arms, black and gold mace held aloft, when a purple aura surrounded him, and lifted him up. Looks like Glynda finally decided to get involved, and used her telekinesis to pull him off balance and to the side.

The last thing Yang saw before she lost consciousness, was Jaunes body falling to the ground, his white hot armor rapidly cooling as he too fell asleep.


	10. Chapter 9: Recovery

"Ughh…" Yang groaned, the bright, fluorescent lights sending bolts of pain through her skull, "my head…"

"Yang!" Ruby shouted, yanking her sister into a big hug. The blonde looked around, and saw Blake and Weiss there, both relieved, but the former notably more concerned, and the latter notably more angry.

"Hey Rubes!" Yang said, muscling through the now rapidly fading headache to return the hug, "Where am I?"

"Beacons hospital wing," Blake answered, stepping forward, "you've been here since your match with Jaune."

Yang smirked.

"Wow," she snarked, "I laid a beatdown on him so bad _I_ got sent to the nurse? Ha!"

"Guys?" She quieted down, an eyebrow raised, "Why aren't you looking at me?"

"Yang…" Her sister said, a little slower, "what was the last thing you remember?"

"I was fighting Jaune, and he grabbed my hair," Yang said, thinking back, scowling at the memory, "then...then…"

"What happened?" She said, now concerned.

"Well…" Ruby began, prepared to explain gracefully and cautiously, when Weiss jumped in.

"Jaune beat you." She said plainly, to which Yang glared at her, "Then you snuck up on Jaune and punched him full force _AFTER_ Miss Goodwitch called the match."

"I...I did?" Yang said, almost surprised at herself.

"Then Jaune got back up, pulled a mace out of Oum knows where and beat you hard enough to justify sending you to the hospital." Blake finished, looking a now embarrassed Yang in the eye.

"Is Jaune...alright?" Yang whispered quietly, the ramifications of what she had done becoming present as Goodwitch herself entered the room, a scathing glower on her face as she eyed Yang.

"Aside from the fact that you broke ten of his ribs, fractured his sternum, ruptured his spleen and gave him some serious internal bleeding," She spoke, Yang shrinking down into the comforters as her cold tone reacher the blondes ears, "I'd say he's fine."

* * *

"This is bullshit!" Yang shouted in outrage, drawing a gasp from her sister as the blonde threw a loose sheet of paper on the desk. Ever since her and Glynda's little chat, she had been swamped with additional assignments as punishment.

"What now?" Blake said, looking up from her novel. Or rather down, given that she was on the top 'bunk' in the room.

"Why am I the only one doing this?" She said, throwing her hands up in the air, "Why doesn't Jaune have to do any other work?"

An audible growl sounded from the door to the bathroom. Yang, Blake and Ruby turned to see Weiss, long, silver hair loose, and a set of nightclothes on her body. Her blue eyes narrowed, glaring angrily at Yang, before she spoke.

"The reasons Jaune isn't doing extra work right now," she started, voice low and calm, but quickly rising in pitch and volume, "is because _you_ put him in the hospital, and he still hasn't woken up!"

There was silence.

"Five days," Weiss angrily held out her hand, fingers raised, "five days he's been unconscious, bleeding out in a hospital bed with a ruptured organ and half his ribs broken!"

"N-now Weiss, I-" Ruby stammered, trying to calm down her partner to no avail.

"Don't you 'Weiss' me Ruby!" She said, pointing a finger at the younger girl, "You haven't noticed that he's been out of class for a week now? That his team leaves early after last period?"

"Why do you know?" Blake asked, voice bereft of hostility, seeing that Weiss was really distressed.

"Because I've been going with them after class to see him, like you all should have been!" She yelled, making everyone, even Ruby a little more downcast.

"Jeez," Yang muttered, scratching the back of her neck, "his team must be really pissed at us…"

"Oh no," Weiss said, no longer yelling, just speaking very sternly as she stomped up to the yellow haired girl, "they are not mad at our team, _we_ are mad at _you._ " She enunciated, poking Yang in the chest on the last word.

"We?" Ruby said, a quizzical tone in her voice.

"Yes, _we."_ Weiss repeated, glaring at her partner, "His team and I are most certainly angry."

"But you're on my team…" Ruby trailed off as Weiss started shouting again.

"Am I? Am I on your team?" She yelled/asked, temper rising again, "At this point, I'm more on his team than I am yours!"

"Hey, Ruby's still your partner Weiss, that doesn't-"

"Well she maybe shouldn't be!" Weiss yelled again, cutting off Blake, "I should have been on a team with Jaune and Pyrrha, _we_ , should have been together!"

Silence.

"I'm going to visit him again," She said, storming out of the room, hand on the doorknob, "I'll apologize for you if he wakes up."

"Weiss, wait!" Ruby called out as the silver haired heiress slammed the door, leaving the room in silence once again.

* * *

"Oh thank Monty he's waking up!" A nurse exhaled, obviously relieved. Jaune on the other hand would have preferred to stay unconscious, considering the pain he was feeling. The room was too bright, there was an annoying beeping noise coming from his right side, and everything seemed way too loud.

"By the gods," he groaned, eyes screwing themselves shut in an attempt to hide from the bright lights, "where in Velsharoons name am I?"

"You're in the hospital wing," another nurse said, entering the room, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren behind her, "you got roughed up pretty good."

"Jaune!" Nora shouted as she came in, quickly bounding up to his bedside, "are you alright?"

"Easy there sweetheart," the nurse said, subtly guiding Nora off the edge of his bed, her soothing southern accent making short work of the hyperactive ginger, "Mister Arc is still recovering, and he's been out for a few days."

"Days?" Jaune said, with a slight start, now wondering how hard Yang had hit him. It had been his fault entirely, given how he'd turned his back. And of course a little fault went to his armor. His set of living armor 'relaxes' when not actively blocking strikes, to give him a bit more flexibility, becoming incredibly rigid when in battle. Since he'd thought he was out of battle, his armor had 'softened up', and didn't have enough time to re-harden.

But days? That wasn't something a human teenager should be able to do. Jaune knew Yang was strong, he'd just had a fight with her, but it was obvious he had underestimated her raw strength.

And then there was that ability of her's, some kind of energy transfer, which was probably what really allowed her to hit him as hard as she did.

' _Guess I'll need to be more careful next time.'_ He thought to himself.

* * *

' _I should be with Jaune'_ , Weiss muttered to herself as she stormed down the halls of Beacon, making her way towards the hospital wing, " _he should have been MY partner!"_

While she was stomping around, she failed to notice Ozpin walking towards her, at least until she ran right into him, staggering backwards at the sudden stop.

"Oh!" The older huntsman said, as the heiress recovered, "Hello Weiss."

"So sorry Mr. Ozpin," she apologized, "I wasn't paying attention."

"Apology accepted Miss Schnee," he said, chuckling to himself, "but I must ask, where are you going at this time of night?"

"I'm going to visit Jaune with his team again." she said, her voice hardening, something that didn't go unnoticed by the headmaster.

"You sound angry," he remarked, leaning forward slightly, "did something happen?"

"What happened is my team doesn't care about Jaune!" She snapped, before she realized who she was talking to again. Ozpin eyed her with a look that beckoned her to continue.

"They didn't even notice he'd been out of class until I told them," she said softly, "and I'm the only one who's visited him, it's like they don't even care."

"Ugh…" she sighed, sounding a little defeated as her shoulders slumped, "I should have been his partner, not Ruby's…"

"I see…" the professor regarder her with a pair of soft brown eyes.

"Well that certainly sounds like an issue with your team," he said after a moment of pause, "but you must remember that they are _your_ team, as much as you may want otherwise. You four _will_ be together for your time here at Beacon."

"I suggest you work this out with them at some time in the future, but for now, you may want to hurry down to the hospital wing," He said, walking down the hall, "Mister Arc just woke up."

* * *

"But we were soooo worried about you!" Nora said, as the nurse began checking his blood pressure, affixing the strap around his bicep.

"They certainly were hun," the nurse said, her southern drawl filled with mirth, "your team was here every day visiting you, and that young silver haired girl from the other team."

"Weiss?" Jaune asked, raising an eyebrow as he sat up in the hospital bed, the sheet dropping enough to see his chest, which was wrapped almost entirely in white, linen bandages.

"Yes. Weiss was here with us." Pyrrha stated flatly, her eyes narrowing slightly as Jaune spoke his next words.

"Well that's nice." He said, smiling warmly at the gesture. He then looked over at Pyrrha, who was scowling very slightly.

' _She looks almost…'_ Jaune thought, waiting for the right word to come to him, ' _...jealous?'_

"I know he's in there," Came the voice of a certain silver haired huntress in training, growing steadily louder as it approached the door, "Now let me in."

And thus, the door was flung open, much to the dismay of the unfortunate nurse trying to convince her otherwise.

" _Speak of the devil._ " Pyrrha muttered under her breath as Weiss approached the bed, while the nurse from earlier removed the strap from Jaunes arm.

"Oh thank Oum you're finally awake!" She said, sounding relieved and happy as Jaune returned a smile.

"It'll take a lot more than a cheap shot to put me down," Jaune chuckled as he sat up a little more, glancing down at the sterile, white bandages wrapped around his chest, and a small, slowly growing splotch of red in the lower portion, "I wouldn't be much use if I couldn't take a hit."

"About that," Weiss said, looking both angry and nervous all of a sudden. "I also need to apologize on behalf of my teammate."

* * *

"I can't believe you're taking her side!" Yang shouted angrily at Ruby, who was trying to convince her to visit Jaune.

"Yang, you need to calm down," Blake said from the top bunk, putting her book down to join in on the conversation, "let Ruby explain herself."

"Fine." she huffed, before gesturing to her sister.

"Weiss is right," the younger girl said, eyes looking down, "We should have been checking on Jaune."

"I agree."

Everyone jumped, Ruby even giving a short yelp of surprise. In the doorway stood Ozpin, dressed in his usual black and green garb, cane in one hand, and mug in the other. He regarded the team for a moment before he spoke.

"While none of your are obligated whatsoever to visit Mister Arc," he said, as Glynda walked up behind him and looked over his shoulder, before going back to her scroll, "It certainly would be a positive gesture, a show of kindness, something Miss Xiao Long would benefit from."

"But anyway," he said, adjusting his glasses, "I am here to tell you all that Mister Arc is now awake. And again, while you three are under no obligation to, I would sugfest you visit him, _especially_ Miss Xiao Long."

"Well I-" Yang began, only for Ruby to slap a hand over her mouth and speak for the team.

"Sure thing Mister Ozpin," she said, smiling as Yang grunted angrily, still muffled, "we'll come down right now."

"Wonderful."

* * *

"Here you are," The nurse said, as RBY, Ozpin and Glynda stopped at the door, "Mister Arc is in here."

"Thank you, we shouldn't be too long." Ozpin said, before he gestured to Ruby to open the door. She grabbed the handle and turned, letting the group into the room.

"If you keep moving around, you'll rip your stitches again." The nurse there said, as she slowly unwrapped a set of bandages from around his chest, exposinga number of puncture wounds, a few lacerations, and a giant bruise that covered his entire right torso, from his mid chest, all the way down to the bottom of his stomach.

At the moment, a few of the wounds were leaking blood, the stitches they'd been closed with having been damaged. The nurse stepped back, disposing of the used bandages in a bin, before grabbing some cleaning supplies and going to work, gently cleaning off the new blood, quickly stitching up a few reopened wounds, before Jaune noticed the new arrivals.

"Oh hey there!" He said, waving, as his team and Weiss turned and looked.

"Hi Jaune!" Ruby waved back, smiling.

"Hello Ruby," Jaune responded, before acknowledging the rest of the people there, "Blake, Sir Ozpin, Lady Goodwitch, nice to see you again."

"Hello Mister Arc," The headmaster said, smiling in relief, "While I'm glad to see you awake, I think you should stop tearing your stitches."

"Apologies sir," He said respectfully, "I'll try not to damage them again."

"But in other matters," Ozpin said, clearing his throat and gesturing to the door, " _Someone_ is here to visit you."

After a few moments pause, Yang walked in, eyes locked on the floor, before slowly panning up. She winced, looking at the state of Jaune, confined to his hospital bed, a large, deep purple bruise covering half his chest, stitches all along his ribs, and an IV in his arm.

She looked around her, catching expectant looks from Ozpin, Glynda, Blake and Ruby, and everything from annoyance to anger from Weiss and Jaunes team. Then she looked at him, catching his gaze.

In her head, she expected him to be angry, but with a satisfyingly grudging respect in his eyes, more of an acknowledgment of her strength than anything else, knowledge that she was not one to be taken lightly.

Instead, his face bore something halfway between a scowl and a smug grin, as he looked back. His glaring eyes were aglow with burning anger, like a pair of golden headlights, but instead of respect, was something more akin to a dismissive annoyance, which stung more than his evident anger; that he didn't even give her respect.

"Gonna break the rest of my ribs now?" He snarked, raising an eyebrow, "Waiting for another cheap shot? Seeing how that's the only way you could beat me I doubt you could do anything else."

"I'm here to apologize." Yang said, forcing her pride to be quite, despite Jaunes biting remarks.

"Didn't know you could do that," he said, snorting, "thought you'd be here to challenge me to another duel."

"I-" She began before he cut her off.

"How about we do it right now?" He said, sitting up straight, smoke starting to drift from his hair, "It'll be an even fight."

That hurt. Ruby, Blake, even Glynda a little, all visibly recoiled at that particularly biting retort. Blinking away tears of anger and embarrassment, Yang grit her teeth and apologized.

"I'm sorry," she ground out, "I didn't mean to hurt you like that."

" _Didn't mean to hurt me my ass,"_ Jaune grumbled, before he spoke again, "Didn't mean to hurt me? I assume that's why you waited until after the match?"

It was at this moment that everyone in the room realized what a bad idea this was. But it was when Yang started yelling that it was reaffirmed.

"You didn't even use your aura!" She yelled, "If you're acting that dumb in a fight, maybe you could learn a lesson from this!"

"What the hell even is aura anyway?" Jaune shouted right back, angry and fed up, "I've been hearing you all constantly going on and on about it, but no one has even explained it to me, so obviously if I don't know what it is, I can't use it!"

Silence.

"Mister Arc," Glynda said slowly, so as not to set him off again, "do you honestly not know what aura is?"

"No." He growled, still very much annoyed. Pyrrha put her hand on his shoulder, closed her eyes and concentrated, using her own aura to try and sense his. Her eyes opened after a second, and she looked to Glynda, shaking her head slowly.

"You don't have aura…" Yang said, almost in disbelief. That sure did explain his injuries, but nothing else, like his fire, his companion, or even his strength.

"Yeah, I don't, what's it to you?" He said, now sounding defensive, "Didn't even have it and I won, doesn't seem too useful to me."

"I think that's enough for now," the nurse said nervously, trying to break the tension by shoeing out everyone except Glynda and Ozpin, "let's all give Mister Arc a little space, shall we?"

* * *

A week had passed, and Jaune was finally back in class. He was mostly healed, just some light bruising and and ribs still bothering him. And it seemed like everyone except Yang was friends with him.

His team was obviously there for him, helping him get on his feet again, keeping him active, and functioning while he recovered. He and Ruby often hung out, getting into long discussions about weapons, materials, and techniques, Weiss spent an entire weekend helping him make up the work he'd missed, and Blake had even given him a short yoga lesson, in hopes the stretching would be good for his recovery.

Expect for Yang. After that train wreck of an apology visit, Jaune had been giving her a cold shoulder even Weiss would be proud of. Not a word to her, not even a glance, it was like she didn't even exist anymore. When her team ran into Jaune, he would greet everyone except Yang, and frankly, it was getting on her nerves.

After a particularly stressful day, Yang found herself storming off to the gym for some training, just to blow off some steam, when she ran into Pyrrha, who was coming out of the locker room in full combat dress.

"Hey Pyrrha." She said, waving to the redheaded girl, who waved back.

"Oh," she said, her voice neutral, "Hi Yang. What are you doing here?"

"Just blowing off some steam," she said, shrugging, "probably gonna grab some weights."

"Oh nice," Pyrrha responded, as her sword and shield floated into her hands, "I'm just doing some combat training with Jaune."

"Oh…" And now her expression soured, "good for you."

"Anyway," Pyrrha said, obviously trying to end the exchange, "He's waiting for me in the training ring, I'd rather not keep him waiting any longer."

"Yeah sure," Yang waved goodbye as she left, "see you around."

"You too."

Yang walked into the locker room and sat down on one of the benches. She huffed, releasing an exasperated sigh of general annoyance.

"I really screwed this up, didn't I." She said to no one in particular as the sound of a gunshot echoed from the training room.

* * *

Jaune raised his shield just in time to block a shot, the dust round plinking against his shield as Pyrrha probed for an opening. Another two shots bounced off his shield, before the knight returned fire, using his shield hand to cast and throw a fireball, which Pyrrha nimbly dodged.

Realized neither party could do much of anything from a distance, as Pyrrha was fast enough to avoid his pyromancy, and Jaune's shield and armor rendered Pyrrhas bullets ineffective, and thus, the two moved in for a melee.

Making use of her speed to strike first, Pyrrha shifted her rifle into a sword and leapt into an overhand strike, which Jaune blocked with his shield. He countered with a lunging thrust, to which Pyrrha responded to by rolling over his right shoulder and off his back, slashing at his rear as she rolled off.

Grunting in surprise at the move, Jaune whipped around, swinging his sword in a broad, horizontal sweep. Pyrrha, once again using her lighter weight and high agility, jumped, flipping over the sword, and Jaune himself to land on the other side, getting in another good slash on his back.

Jaune responded remarkably fast for someone in such heavy armor, spinning and bringing his sword down in a diagonal slash, clashing with hers at the center. Pushing forward, Jaune locked the two blades together with the crossguard of his, before forcing the two sword up, turning and making enough room for a powerful side kick, which he then performed.

Fortunately, his partner was fast enough to use her shield, putting the circular hoplite style shield between her and Jaunes boot. Which was a good idea, considering the force of the kick managed to send her skidding back a good few feet, heels scraping against the floor as she ground to a stop.

' _Damm, she's light on her feet,'_ Jaune thought, breathing heavily, which was to be expected of a sparring match that was entering its tenth minute, ' _I need to end this quickly before she gets lucky.'_

' _By Oum he's strong,'_ Pyrrha thought, as Jaune flexed his fire, steam and smoke starting to flow from his armor as his metal plating began to glow, ' _My arms are burning from that kick, I can't keep trading hits like that when he has me outclassed in power.'_

' _But,'_ She thought to herself, as her sword transformed into a spear, surprising Jaune, ' _Maybe range might be the key.'_

"Grrrah!" Jaune grunted as he forced himself forward to meet Pyrrha, using his shield to block a thrust from her spear. While Jaune was certainly stronger, Pyrrhas superior range was giving him some pause, seeing as how she was now forcing him back.

But she still wasn't making any progress. Jaune's shield was still overing himself, and she wasn't going to break through that armor anytime soon, and as their match ticked into minute twelve, it looked like they were in another standstill.

' _Sorry Jaune'_ The redheaded mitralian thought as she readied herself, ' _I need to end this match now.'_

She quickly pushed her aura into overdrive, sending extra power and control to her semblance. Her hands started to emit a black aura, as did Jaunes sword and shield, something that clearly alarmed him, given the look on his face. She flexed her magnetism, and his weapons flew out of his hands, much to his dismay and surprise.

Instead of panicking, he steeled his eyes, squared his shoulders, and clenched his glowing white fists, readying himself for a final stand.

Using her semblance again, she flung her shield at him, sending the disc of metal flying towards his head. His eyes widened, as he ducked, the shield flying over his head and behind him. But when his eyes snapped back to Pyrrha, she was already in motion, charging him with her spear leveled at his chest, pointing at the point just below his sternum.

Only when the spear was about a foot from his chest did Jaune snap into action. Quickly, he used his right hand to slap the spear downward, at the same time raising his right foot, before it came crashing down. He planted his sabaton on the spearhead and forced it to the ground, breaking Pyrrhas posture and sending her off balance.

His next move was to dive into her, crashing into her waist and tackling her to the ground. As the two were falling, Jaune whipped out a nine inch arming dagger, hidden near the back of utility belt in a brown leather sheath, and pressed it against the underside of her chin after they hit the ground.

"I win." He grinned, breathing hard, a firefly glint in his golden eyes, his mad grin only falling as he felt a metal point press against the underside of his chin. He shifted his eyes down to see Pyrrhas spear, now back in sword form, threatening to punch through his throat.

"Are you sure?" Pyrrha asked, smiling right back and raising an eyebrow, just as out of breath as Jaune was, sweat across her forehead, especially now that Jaune was on top of her, bring his pyromantic heat closer. Now basically face to face with his glowing white gauntlet, she could easily see the wavy distortions caused by it's impressive heat.

"Ah…" He said, his smile returning as he paused for breath again, "...let's call it a draw."

"Deal."


	11. Chapter 10: Forever Fall Forest

**Whoops. Well this is a few weeks late. Sorry guys, I just needed a little hiatus, got burned out a tad, but I'm back now, so don't worry!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Well it's a pretty risky move," Jaune said as he walked back to his table with a full tray of food, "and it needs a lot of practice to be effective, plus you need to be able to follow up."

"Yeah but it's so cool!" Nora shouted as the two sat back down, a full plate of pancakes on her tray, "You stomped Pyrrha's spear into the ground and knocked her down!"

"Okay, yes," Jaune said in mirth, looking over to his partner, who smiled warmly, "but I didn't beat her."

"Give yourself some credit Jaune, we called a draw." Pyrrha said, giggling as Jaune responded with, "Yeah after fifteen minutes…"

"Wait what?" Came the voice of a heiress from the other end of the table, where Team RWBY was seated.

"Yeah," Jaune shrugged, taking another bite of bread, "really had to work for it too. Your sword...err, spear thing…was really keeping me on my toes."

"You're nothing to scoff at yourself, Jaune," Pyrrha said, smiling, "even without aura, you're a great fighter."

"Thanks Pyrrha, I-" Jaune said warmly, before he was cut off.

"Hey!" Came the voice of Weiss from down the table, "Did you say fifteen minutes?" She shouted incredulously.

"Around there," Jaune responded, "why?"

"She's Pyrrha Nikos, THE Pyrrha Nikos," The heiress said, eyes wide, "how are you not more excited?"

" _The_ Pyrrha Nikos?" The knight questioned, taking a long sip of water while his partner began to look rather suspicious.

"Yes!" Weiss shouted again, this time in some form of disbelief, "She's an international celebrity!"

"Really?" Jaune said, raising an eyebrow.

"Really!" Weiss responded, then proceeding to launch into anlong recap of her career, explaining how she was a world renowned tournament champion from Mistral, and an esteemed public figure, with the girl of subject looking more and more nervous with each listing.

"First place in the Argus Cup, the 14th Haven Invitational, the 6th, 7th and 8th Mistral Championships, the…" And it was at this point that Jaune started to think she was just making stuff up. However, when he looked over to Pyrrha, he saw that she had taken a sudden interest in the floor, and was insisting on keeping her eyes glued to it, avoiding any looks Jaune was giving her. For a second, Jaunes eyes glanced behind her, over he shoulder, at the far end of the mess hall.

Then he saw red.

Without saying a word, Weiss still listing tournaments, Jaune stood, eye narrowed and glowing bright, fire building around him, shoulders squared and fists clenched. Slowly, Weiss stopped talking, and looked at him, a little confused. Fire started dancing around his fists as he dropped his tray, molten plastic dripping from his hands as it clattered to the table.

He stomped past the table, everyone looking at him with bewilderment in their eyes, save for Yang, who seemed a little wary as he stalked past, waves of heat rolling off his limbs. He strode across the floor, crossing to the other side in moments, before reaching out with his right hand.

And grabbing Cardin by the ear, harshly jerking him away from a rabbit faunus. He yelped, both at the sharp pain and the sudden burning heat as Jaune wrenched him away from the girl, stopping him from yanking her ears.

"Ow! Lemme go!" Cardin yelled, as Jaune grit his teeth and twisted a bit, dropping the boy to his knees.

"Apologize." He said, voice cold as steel.

"Fuck you." Cardin spat, the determined look in his eyes rapidly fading as he watched Jaune reach behind his back.

"Apologize," The knight said again, a dagger now pressed against the other boys throat, "or I debone you like a trout."

"I'm sorry…" He grumbled, eyes locked on the blade at his neck, "I won't pull your ears again."

"Good." Jaune said, removing the dagger from his throat and giving him a harsh shove. Once he picked himself off the ground, he shot Jaune a withering glare, before scampering off with his cronies.

* * *

"Ugh, was the knife really necessary?" Roman asked, mostly to himself, "I mean, he had the kid by the ear, just give him a good twist."

"Threats are the only language those people like him understand." Said Acererak from the other side of the room. He stomped past Roman and Morrigan, both of whom were watching Jaunes actions through a wraith.

Acererak stopped and raised his hand, brow wrinkling a bit, before a swirling black and luminous green vortex formed a few feet from his outstretched palm, a gash in the fabric of reality manifesting itself through sheer necromantic willpower ripping itself into existence.

From the swirling, glowing mass of energy and light, came the form of Zalthar, his black robes seeming to melt out of the portal as he stepped into the warehouse. Seeing Acererak before him, he bowed.

"My Lord," Zalthar said, swiftly raising his torso from the bow, "The constructions for the Remnant Webway have been completed, we are prepared to link all gates together."

"Good." The necromancer said, turning back around, "Assemble the ingredients for the rituals, alert me when you are ready."

"Understood my Lord," The vampire bowed once more, "Will that be all?"

Acererak looked around, his eyes stopping on the back of Adam Taurus, green eyes flickering to his horns for a split second, before his attention was turned back towards Zalthar.

"Prepare the guest rooms below the fourth keep," He said, "I want Castle Blackstone to be ready."

* * *

"Grraah!" Jaune growled as he slammed his fist into a tree, the wood cracking and splintering under his gauntlet, bark shrapnel falling to the forest floor, quickly disappearing amidst the red leaves of the forever fall forest.

"..." Pyrrha eyed Jaune, perfectly aware of what he was angry about. His interaction with Cardin had put him in a very sour mood, something he was currently displaying.

"Jaune," She sighed, looking over to Ren for some support, "Is something wrong?"

"No," He growled, his fist still in the tree, "I'm fine, everything's fine."

"Okay," She said, as her and Ren let out a sight of relief together, "If you want to talk about anything, we-"

"Except that Gnoll-brained bastard!" Jaune shouted, clearly referring to Cardin, then launching into yet another rant about the boy.

' _Here we go again.'_ Pyrrha thought, exchanging a glance with Ren.

* * *

"Hey man, I've got the sap," Sky Lark, one of Cardins teammates said, a box with six jars of reddish syrup in his arms, "Russell's got the rapier wasps."

"Good," Cardin said, smirking as he narrowed his eyes, focusing in on Jaune, who was currently embroiled in a rather one sided rant with his team, "pass me a jar, let's see if I can hit the back of his stupid blonde head."

Russell laughed, before passing the red haired boy a jar, which he took in his hand. He smiled, feeling the weight of the glass jar. Once Jaune had been covered with the sap, Dove would release the wasps, and they'd make a beeline straight to the golden eyed knight below.

' _This'll teach him not to mess with me.'_ Cardin thought to himself, as he reared his hand back, prepared to throw.

Then his arm disappeared into the mouth of a grimm.

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Came the scream of terror. Everyone in earshot stopped froze, Jaune even pausing his rant to look to the sound. Just over the ridge was Cardin, his right arm up to the elbow in the mouth of an Alpha Beowolf. It flexed its neck, and lifted Cardin straight into the air, before flinging him to the side, sending the armored team leader straight into a tree.

" _Idiot_ ," Jaune hissed under his breath, as a full back of regular beowulf's crawled out of the forest, "Ren and Nora, deal with them, Pyrrha, tell Goodwitch CRDL's down."

Receiving a nod from his team, Jaune sprinted forward, reaching his right hand up to pull himself up the ridge where CRDL was. Once he was up, he picked his sprint back up, a running punch from his right hand crushing the skull of the beowulf between him and the alpha, which was currently stalking towards the members of CRDL still conscious, meaning everyone but Cardin himself.

Once he was close enough, he jumped, drawing his sword mid air and slashing as he came down and past the grimm, carving a gash along its back, cutting through a few of its spikes. The bipedal wolf howled and turned to Jaune, who had just unbacked his shield. The grimm howled and attacked, swinging its clawed paws wildly. Jaune ducked underneath the first strike, and blocked the second with his shield, stopping the limb dead. Then he swung, severing it a few inches before the wrist.

The grimm screamed in pain as it back up, black liquid and smoke pouring from the grievous wound. It turned to him, savage, crimson eyes glowing with unending hate as it eyed up its new foe.

" _I can't believe I'm saving Cardin."_ Jaune muttered to himself as the wolf lunged, swinging its remaining arm.

He backed up, afterwards using his shield to block two consecutive strikes before thrusting, putting his blade through the upper left thigh of the grimm, then punching with his shield, the black metal heater shield slamming into its bony chest, knocking it back and onto the ground.

"Not that bad," Jaune sighed in a small amount of relief, as the grimm shakily got to its feet, "I was worried you'd be as tough as that Ursa Major from initiation."

"But I guess-"

"SHHHLLCK!"

Jaune was cut off as a grey, metal blade erupted from the Alphas mouth, punching through the back of its skull and out from behind its jaws. The red glow died in its eyes as the blade slowly pulled itself out of its head, and the grimm stood stock still for a second, before falling straight on its face.

Jaune looked up, as the jagged, angular shadow of the being before him came into view, the sound of metal blades scraping together permeating the air, a deep, rumbling, metallic hiss drifting from the mass in front of him, as the afternoon sun glinted off of grey metal.

"Ahh…" Jaune said, eyes widening, "That's not good."

Jaunes next move was to leap back over the ridge, as over a dozen foot long knife blades embedded themselves into the ground where he stood. As he turned and ran, he heard a roar behind him, a deafeningly horrific sound, like two thousands knives being sharpened at once, as the metal grinding became louder.

* * *

"My Lord," came the voice of a skeleton, one who was manning the brand new communications systems shown to them by the people of Remnant, "We have found our quarry."

"Where is it?" The necromancer asked, striding over to look at the monitor.

"It is currently traveling through the Forever Fall Forest, current movement shows it intersecting a group of people here." The technician pointed to a highlighted circle on screen, a bony digit clicking against the plastic.

"That's where Jaune is," Morrigan said, concern building in her voice, "what is it?"

"I shall enhance the image for you, Lady Morrigan." The skeleton offered, before tapping a few keys, zooming in, putting the image of their dimensional hitchhiker on the monitor.

"Oh…" Morrigan said, eyes opening, "That's not good."

Acererak was already reaching for his scroll.

"Hey Jaune!" Nora shouted, waving to her team leader, who was frantically sprinting in their direction, "Took care of the Alpha pretty quick I guess!"

"Jaune, what's up?" Pyrrha said, pushing past Nora. She had never seen Jaune this frantic or worried, there was a wild, almost fearful look in his eyes, and he was looking around, constantly scanning the woods around him.

"We need to get out of here," He said urgently, quickly looking over his shoulder, "now!"

"Jaune," Pyrrha said, now very confused, "what are you talking about?"

"He's coming, and we need to-" He stopped, the faint, but a rapidly approaching sound of something whistling through the air suddenly became louder and louder.

"Get down!" Jaune yelled as he tackled Pyrrha to the ground. A fairly high number of distinct thunks sounded, and Pyrrha looked to where she stood, and saw a trail of footlong knife blades, embedded in the ground where she stood, about two dozen of them, trailed the ground and covering the trunk of the three she was standing in front of.

Jaune leapt to his feet and drew his weapons, as a sharp, metallic hiss sounded, before fading into a deep rumbling groan. Every noise it made sounded synthesized, like someone communicating through scrapes.

" **Rrrrrrr…** " It growled audibly, its form shifting and cutting gashes into the ground and trees it gripped as it snaked through the forest. When it spoke, its voice was like a dozen knives scraping together at different speeds, the distinct pitches forming a kind of demented voice, a harsh mockery of human speech.

And then it spoke.

" **Arc.** "


End file.
